sphere  arc  ijct  new 
Worlds?  to  find  ^ 


l^olanciBcnms  Hu5sei| 


story  of  the  Nations 

A  Series  of  Historical  Studies  intended  to  present  In 
graphic  narratives  the  stories  of  the  different 
nations  that  have  attained  prominence  inhistory. 


In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  national 
life  is  distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and 
noteworthy  periods  and  episodes  are  presented  for 
the  reader  in  their  philosophical  relations  to  each 
other  as  well  as  to  universal  history. 


12°,  Illustrated,  cloth,  each        .     net  $1.50 


WUIL  LIST  SEE  END  OF  THIS  VOLUME. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS 


THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN 
REPUBLICS 


BY 

THOMAS  C.  DAWSON 

Secretan'  of  the  United  States  Legation  to  Brazil 


IN  TWO  PARTS 

PART  I 
ARGENTINA,  PARAGUAY,  URUGUAY,  BRAZIL 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK   AND    LONDON 

^be  Iknlckerbocl^er  iprcss 


Copyright  1909 

BY 

THOMAS  C.  DAWSON 

Eighth  Printing 


ttbe  imfcftccbocfeet  ipcess,  new  itock 


r)3  UNIVERSIT  IFORNIA 


TO  MY  WIFE 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  STUDY  OF  THE  HISTORY 
OF  HER  NATIVE  CONTINENT 


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PREFACE 

THE  question  most  frequently  asked  me  since  I 
began  my  stay  in  South  America  has  been : 
"Why  do  they  have  so  many  revolutions  there?" 
Possibly  the  events  recounted  in  the  following  pages 
may  help  the  reader  to  answer  this  for  himself.  I 
hope  that  he  will  share  my  conviction  that  militarism 
has  already  definitely  disappeared  from  more  than 
half  the  continent  and  is  slowly  becoming  less  power- 
ful in  the  remainder.  Constitutional  traditions,  in- 
herited from  Spain  and  Portugal,  implanted  a 
tendency  toward  disintegration  ;  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese tyranny  bred  in  the  people  a  distrust  of  all 
rulers  and  governments;  the  war  of  independence 
brought  to  the  front  military  adventurers;  civil  dis- 
orders were  inevitable,  and  the  search  for  forms  of 
government  that  should  be  final  and  stable  has  been 
very  painful.  On  the  other  hand,  the  generous  im- 
pulse that  prompted  the  movement  toward  inde- 
pendence has  grown  into  an  earnest  desire  for 
ordered  liberty,  which  is  steadily  spreading  among 
all  classes.  Civic  capacity  is  increasing  among  the 
body  of  South  Americans  and  immigration  is  raising 
the  industrial  level.    They  are  slowly  evolving  among 

V 


VI  PREFA  CE 

themselves  the  best  form  of  government  for  their 
special  needs  and  conditions,  and  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  must  rejoice  to  see  that  that  form  is 
and  will  surely  remain  republican. 

It  is  hard  to  secure  from  the  tangle  of  events 
called  South  American  history  a  clearly  defined 
picture.  At  the  risk  of  repetition  I  have  tried  to 
tell  separately  the  story  of  each  country,  because 
each  has  its  special  history  and  its  peculiar  charac- 
teristics. All  of  these  states  have,  however,  had 
much  in  common  and  it  is  only  in  the  case  of  the 
larger  nations  that  social  and  political  conditions 
have  been  described  in  detail.  A  study  of  either 
Argentina,  Brazil,  Chile,  or  Venezuela  is  likely  to 
throw  most  light  on  the  political  development  of  the 
continent,  while  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Colombia  are 
more  interesting  to  the  seeker  for  local  colour  and 
the  lover  of  the  dramatic. 

The  South  American  histories  so  far  written  treat 
of  special  periods,  and  few  authorities  exist  for  post- 
revolution  times.  Personal  observations  through  a 
residence  of  six  years  in  South  America;  con- 
versations with  public  men,  scholars,  merchants, 
and  proprietors;  newspapers  and  reviews,  political 
pamphlets,  books  of  travel,  and  official  publications, 
have  furnished  me  with  most  of  my  material  for  the 
period  since  1825.  The  following  books  have  been 
of  use  in  the  preparation  of  the  first  volume,  and 
are  recommended  to  those  who  care  to  follow  up 
the  subject : 

Argentina:  Mitre's  Historia  de  Belgrano  and 
Historia   de   San   Martin^   in    Spanish;   Torrente's 


PREFACE  Vll 

Revolucion  Hispano-Aincricano,  in  Spanish;  Loza- 
no's  Conqiiista  del  Paraguay,  La  Plata  y  Tucmnaii, 
in  Spanish;  Funes's  Histoi'ia  dc  Biicnos  Aires  y 
Tucuman,  in  Spanish;  Lopez's  Mamiel  de  Historia 
Argentina,  in  Spanish;  Page's  La  Plata,  in  English; 
Graham's^  Vanislied Arcadia,  in  EngHsh. 

Paraguay:  All  of  the  above  and  Thompson's 
Paraguayan  War,  in  English;  Washburn's  Liistory 
of  Paraguay,  in  English;  Prix's  Guerra  de  Paraguay, 
in  Portuguese. 

Uruguay  :  Bauza's  Dominacion  Espanola,  in  Span- 
ish; Berra's  Bosquejo  Historico,  in  Spanish;  Saint- 
Foix's  U  Uruguay,  in  French. 

Brazil:  Southey's  History  of  the  Brazil,  in 
English;  Varnhagem's  Historia  do  Brasil,  in  Port- 
uguese; Pereira  da  Silva's  Fundaeao  do  Lniperio, 
Segundo  Periodo,  Historia  do  Brasil,  e  Historia  do 
Men  Tempo,  in  Portuguese;  Vi2}awzos  Estadista  do 
Lmperio,  in  Portuguese;  Rio  Branco's  sketch  in  Le 
Bresil  en  i88g,  in  French;  Oliveira  Lima's  Per- 
iianibuco,  in  Portuguese. 

All  of  the  above  books  may  be  found  in  the  Colum- 
bian Memorial  Library  of  the  Bureau  of  American 
Republics  at  Washington,  which,  taken  as  a  whole, 
is  one  of  the  best  collections  on  South  America  in 
existence. 

T.  C.  D. 

Washington,  January  22,  1903. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY:    THE    DISCOVERIES   AND    THE  CON- 
QUEST      ...                      ....  3 

ARGENTINA 

CHAPTF.S 

I.       THE  ARGENTINE  LAND               .            ,             ,            r,  37 

II.       THE  SPANISH  COLONIAL  SYSTEM      ...  47 

III.  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY            ...  58 

IV.  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  .             .            .            .  70 
V.       THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION   .             .  80 

VI.       COMPLETION  OF  THE  WAR  OF   INDEPENDENCE  97 

VU.       THE  ERA  OF  CIVIL  WARS          ....  II5 

Vni.       CONSOLIDATION     ....                          ,  I30 

.'X:       THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE       ....  I4I 


PARAGUAY 

I.       PARAGUAY  UNTIL   1632 

II.       THE  JESUIT    REPUBLIC    AND  COLONIAL  PARA- 
GUAY     

III.  FRANCIA's  REIGN  .... 

IV.  THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ELDER  LOPEZ  ,  , 
V.       THE  WAR       ...... 

VI.      PARAGUAY  SINCE  1870  ,  ,  . 


165 

177 
188 
198 
206 
2  20 


CHAPTBR 
I. 

II. 


CONTENTS 
URUGUA  Y 

INTRODUCTION 

PORTUGUESE     AGGRESSIONS    AND    THE    SET 
TLEMENT  OF  THE  COUNTRY   . 


III.  THE  REVOLUTION  .... 

IV.  INDEPENDENCE  AND  CIVIL  WAR  , 
V.  CIVIL  WAR  AND  ARGENTINE  INTERVENTION 

VI.  COLORADOS  AND  BLANCOS  .  .  ,  , 


PAGE 
227 

247 

265 
272 


BRAZIL 

I.  PO^'^UGAL 

II.  DISCOVERY 

III.  DESCRIPTION 

IV.  EARLY  COLONISATION  , 
V.  THE  JESUITS 

VI.  FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  RIO 

VII.  EXPANSION 

Vni.  THE  DUTCH  CONQUEST 

IX.  EXPULSION  OF  THE  DUTCH 

X.  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 

XI.  GOLD  DISCOVERIES — REVOLTS — 
TACKS. 

XII.  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

XIII.  THE  PORTUGUESE  COURT  IN  RIO 

XIV.  INDEPENDENCE  . 
XV.  REIGN  OF  PEDRO  I.       . 

XVI.  THE  REGENCY     . 

XVII.  PEDRO  II 


•      • 

.   287 

•      • 

'   295 

•      • 

.   305 

•      • 

.    z^(> 

• 

■    326 

• 

.    ZZl 

• 

•    342 

•      • 

.   350 

•      • 

361 

• 

371 

FRENCH  AT 

• 

378 

•          • 

386 

5 

401 

9        •        a 

4" 

•        •        « 

421 

•        •        • 

436 

•        «        • 

449 

CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

XVIII.       EVENTS  OF  1849  TO  1864    . 
THE  PARAGUAYAN  WAR 


XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

INDF.X 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EMANCIPATION    . 

THE    REVOLUTION  —  THE    DICTATORSHIP 

THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  . 


XI 

PAGE 

468 
478 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Frontispiece 


CAPE  HORN     .... 
From  a  steel  engraving, 

FERDINAND,   KING  OF  SPAIN     . 
Redrawn  from  an  old  print. 

FRANCISCO  PIZARRO 

From  Montaitis  ^''America" 


THE     AUTHENTIC     PORTRAIT    OF    CHRISTOPHER    CO' 
LUMBUS ....... 


MINING  SCENE  ...... 

Redrawn  from  Gottfriedfs  ^^  Neue  Welt" 

A    YOUNG   GAUCHO  

From  a  lithograph. 

FOREST  SCENE  IN  ARGENTINA  .  .  , 

From  a  steel  print. 

DOCKS  AT  BUENOS   AIRES  .... 

AN  OLD  SPANISH  CORNER  IN  BUENOS  AIRES 

MANUEL  BELGRANO  ..... 

From  an  oil  painting. 

GENERAL  SAN  MARTIN    ..... 
From  a  steel  engraving. 

PLAZADE  MAYO  AND  CATHEDRAL  AT  BUENOS  AIRES 
From  a  lithograph 

xiii 


6 

9 

II 
i6 

28 

39 

44 
76 
95 

99 

"3 


XIV 


ILL  USTRA  TIONS 


BUENOS  AIRES  IN   1845     . 
From  a  steel  engraving. 

BARTOLOME  MITRE 

From  a  steel  engraving. 


JULIO  ROCA 


(GATEWAY  OF  THE  CEMETERY  AT  BUENOS  AIRES 
From  a  lithograph. 

A  RIVER  ROAD  IN  ARGENTINA  ,  .  . 

From  a  lithograph. 


ASUNCION 

GUAYRA  FALLS         

JOSE  RODPTOUEZ  CASPAR  FRANCIA 

From  an  old  woodcut. 

FRANCISCO  SOLANO  LOPEZ         .... 
From  a  photograph  taken  in  iS^g. 

PALM  GROVES  IN  EL  CHACO   .... 

HARBOUR  AT  MONTEVIDEO   .... 

MONTEVIDEO      ...... 

From  an  old  print, 

BRIDGE  AT  MALDONADO  .  .  .  . 

GENERAL  DON  JOSE  GERVASIO  ARTIGAS   . 
From  an  old  woodcut. 

THE  SOLIS  THEATRE 

THE  CATHEDRAL,  MONTEVIDEO 

OLD  TOWER  AT  LISBON  WHENCE  THE  FLEET  SAILED 

A  TUPI  VILLAGE 

A  GARDEN  IN  PETROPOLIS         .... 

BAHIA 


PAGB 
167 


217 

243 
249 

275 
283 
296 
299 
307 
324 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PADRE  JOS^  DE  ANCHIETA 
From  an  old  ivoodcut. 

PLANTERS  GOING  TO  CHURCH 
From  an  old  print. 

A  CADEIRA     .... 

OLD  FORT  AT  BAHIA 

RIO  GRANDE  DO  SUL 

OLD  RANCH  IN  RIO  GRANDE     . 

WASHING  DIAMONDS 

BOATS  ON  THE  RIO  GRANDE     . 
From  a  steel  print. 

DOM  JOHN  VI.  ,  .  , 

From  an  old  woodcut. 

DOM  PEDRO  I.  .  .  . 

From  an  old  woodcut. 

DOINI  JOSE  BONIFACIO  DE  ANDRADA 
From  a  steel  print. 

EVARISTO  FERREIRA  DA  VEIGA 
From  a  steel  engraving. 

DONNA  JANUARIA  .... 
From  a  steel  engraving. 

DOM  PEDRO  II 

From  a  steel  engraving. 

BARON  OF  CAXIAS  .  ,  . 

From  an  old  woodcut, 

PRINCESS  ISABEL  IN  1889 

PAMPAS  OF  THE  RIO  GRANDE 

OLD  MARKET  IN  SAO  PAULO     . 

governor's  palace  IN  SAO  PAULO 


XV 

PAGE 

337 

340 
353 
387 
390 
391 
395 

403 
414 
418 
431 
445 
447 
453 

456 
460 

465 
469 


XVI 


ILLUSTKA  TIONS 


HOSPITAL  AND  OLD  CHURCH  AT  PORTO  ALEGRE 

BRIDGE  AT  MENDANHA  , 

CITY  OF  OURO  PRETO 

EMPEROR  DOM  PEDRO  IN    [889 

MILITARY  SCHOOL  OF  RIO  JANEIRO 

GENERAL  BENJAMIN  CONSTANT 
Fro)ii  a  -woodcut. 

THE  EMPRESS  IN   1 889      . 

AMERICAN  LEGATION  NEAR  RIO 

CAMPOS  SALLES        .... 
From  a  woodctit. 

MAPS 

MAP  OF  ARGENTINA,  PARAGUAY,  URUGUAY,  BOLIVIA, 
AND  CHILE        ....... 

OUTLINE  MAP  OF  BRAZIL  ..... 


PAGE 

475 
480 

483 
491 

493 
496 

498 

5°5 
510 


38 


MAP  OF  SOUTH    AMERICA  ....  At  671  d 

Showing  the  progress  of  settlement  and  present  populated  area 


INTRODUCTORY 

THE  DISCOVERIES  AND  THE  CONQUEST 


INTRODUCTORY 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND  THE  CONQUEST 


Spain  s  Discovery  of  America. — Town  or  com- 
munal government  has  been  characteristic  of  Spain 
since  before  the  Roman  conquest.  The  Visigoths, 
who  destroyed  the  advanced  civilisation  the}^  found 
in  the  Peninsula,  never  really  amalgamated  with  the 
subject  population,  and,  happily,  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  destroying  the  municipalities.  The  liberal, 
civilised,  and  tolerant  Saracens  who  drove  out  the 
Goths,  left  their  Christian  subjects  free  to  enjoy 
their  own  laws  and  customs.  The  municipalities 
gave  efficient  local  self-government  while  a  system 
of  small  proprietorships  made  the  Peninsula  prosper, 
as  in  the  best  days  of  the  Roman  dominion.  The 
population  of  Spain  reached  twenty  millions  under 
the  Moors,  but  finally  dynastic  civil  wars  enabled  the 
remnant  of  Visigoths  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
northern  mountains  to  begin  the  gradual  expulsion 
of  the  Mahometans.  In  the  midst  of  these  currents 
of  war  and  conquest  setting  to  and  fro,  the  old 
municipalities  survived  unchangeable,  and  always 
supplying  local  self-government. 


4  INTRODUCTORY 

A  tendency  toward  decentralisation  was  ingrained 
in  the  Spanish  people  from  the  earliest  times.  It 
was  increased  by  the  method  in  which  the  Christian 
conquest  of  Mahometan  Spain  was  achieved.  The 
Visigothic  nobility,  starting  from  separate  points  in 
Asturias  and  Navarre,  advanced  into  Saracen  terri- 
tory and  established  counties  and  earldoms  which 
were  virtually  independent  of  their  mother-king- 
doms. The  Asturians  expanded  into  Leon  and 
thence  over  Galicia,  northern  Portugal,  Old  and 
New  Castile.  The  power  of  the  Leonese  monarch 
over  Galicia  was  nominal ;  Castile  and  Portugal  sepa- 
rated from  Leon  almost  as  soon  as  they  were  wrested 
from  the  Mahometans.  The  Basques  were  always 
independent,  and  Navarre,  though  it  became  the 
mother  of  Aragon,  had  little  connection  with  the 
latter  region.  On  the  Mediterranean  shore  Charle- 
magne drove  the  Moors  from  Catalonia  and  made  it 
a  province  of  his  empire,  but  no  sooner  was  he  dead 
than  it  became  independent.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  Christian  conquest  was  vir- 
tually completed,  and  the  Peninsula  had  been  divided 
into  four  kingdoms.  Each  of  these  was,  however,  in 
reality  only  a  federation  of  semi- independent  feudal 
divisions  and  municipalities  united  by  personal  alle- 
giance to  a  single  sovereign.  \\\  the  course  of  the 
continual  quarrelling  of  the  monarchs  their  kingdoms 
frequently  divided,  coalesced,  and  separated  again. 
The  death  of  a  king  or  the  marriage  of  his  daughter 
was  often  the  signal  for  war  and  a  readjustment  of 
^boundaries,  but  these  overturnings  did  not  much  af- 
fect the  component  and  really  vital  political  units. 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND  THE   CONQUEST         5 

More  significant  than  the  political  kingdoms  were 
the  linguistic  divisions.  Spain  then  spoke,  and  still 
speaks,  three  languages,  each  of  which  has  many 
dialects.  From  Asturias  and  Navarre  the  language, 
now  known  as  Castilian,  had  spread  over  the  central 
part  of  the  Peninsula  south  to  Cadiz  and  Murcia. 
From  Galicia  the  Gallego  had  spread  directly  south 
along  the  Atlantic,  where  one  of  its  dialects  grew 
into  the  Portuguese.  On  the  east  coast  the  Cata- 
lonian,  imported  from  Languedoc  by  the  French 
conqueror,  is  a  mere  derivative  of  the  Provencal. 
Its  dialects  are  spoken  all  along  the  Mediterranean 
coasts  of  Spain  as  far  south  as  Alicante,  as  well  as 
in  the  Balearic  islands. 

By  1300  A.D.  two  great  political  divisions,  Castile 
and  Aragon,  covered  three-fourths  of  the  Peninsula, 
and  their  boundaries  were  well  established ;  each, 
however,  was  a  mere  loose  aggregation  of  provinces, 
and  every  province  had  its  own  laws  and  customs, 
its  jealously  guarded  privileges,  its  legislative  assem- 
bly, and  its  free  municipalities.  Galicia  had  never 
become  incorporated  with  Leon ;  the  Basques  ruled 
themselves ;  Catalonia  was  really  independent  of 
Aragon ;  Castile  had,  from  the  beginning,  been 
virtually  independent,  although  under  the  same 
monarch  as  Leon,  and,  indeed,  had  taken  the  latter's 
place  as  the  metropolitan  province  of  the  kingdom. 

The  one  great  unifying  force  was  religious  senti- 
ment, stimulated  into  fanaticism  by  centuries  of  wars 
against  the  infidels.  Nevertheless,  during  the  two 
centuries  before  the  discovery  of  America  the 
Spaniards  absorbed  much  culture  from  their  Moorish 


IN  TROD  UCTOR  Y 


subjects.  In  1479,  ^^^  whole  Peninsula,  except 
Portugal  and  Granada,  was  politically  united  by  the 
accession  of  Ferdinand  to  the  throne  of  Aragon,  and 


FERDINAND,    KING   OF   SPAIN. 
[Redrawn  from  an  old  print.] 


of  Isabella  to  that  of  Castile  and  Leon.  With  local 
liberties  intact,  and  peace  prevailing  throughout  its 
whole  extent,  the  Peninsula  enjoyed  a  prosperity 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND  THE    CONQUEST         7 

unknown  since  the  golden  era  of  the  Moors.  The 
population  rose  to  twelve  millions;  Andalusia, 
Galicia,  Catalonia,  and  Valencia  were  among  the 
most  flourishing  and  thickly  settled  parts  of  Europe, 
while  the  military  qualities  of  the  aristocracy  of  Cas- 
tile and  Leon  and  Aragon  gave  the  new  power  the 
best  armies  of  the  time. 

Colonies  founded  by  a  monarchy  so  organised 
could  never  be  firmly  knit  to  each  other  nor  to  the 
mother  country.  The  nobility  of  the  sword  would 
try  to  establish  feudal  principalities;  the  new  cities 
would  endeavour  to  exercise  the  local  functions  of 
the  old  Peninsular  municipalities;  and  the  spirit 
of  local  independence  still  animating  Catalonians, 
Basques,  Galicians,  and  Andalus.ians  would  be  re- 
peated on  a  new  continent.  The  only  bond  of  union 
would  be  personal  allegiance  to  the  monarch. 

In  the  fourteenth  century.  Christian  navigators 
reached  the  Canary  Islands — sixty  miles  from  the 
African  coast  and  six  hundred  southeast  of  Gibraltar. 
The  assurance  that  land  did  really  exist  below  the 
horizon  of  that  western  ocean,  so  mysterious  and 
terrible  to  the  early  navigators,  gave  them  confi- 
dence to  push  farther  into  the  deep.  In  navigation, 
the  Spaniards  lagged  behind  their  Portuguese  neigh- 
bours. But  among  the  Spanish  kingdoms  Castile 
took  the  lead  because  her  Andalusian  ports  of  Cadiz, 
San  Lucar,  Palos,  and  Huelva  faced  on  the  open  At- 
lantic. These  towns  swarmed  with  sailors  who  had 
followed  in  the  track  of  the  Portuguese  and  visited 
their  new^  possessions.  The  Castilians  and  An- 
dalusians  were   naturally  jealous  of  the  successful 


8  IN  TROD  UCTOR  V 

Portuguese.  Madeira,  the  Azores,  the  Cape  Verdes, 
and  the  gold  mines  of  the  Guinea  coast  had  fallen 
to  the  latter,  while  the  Spaniards  had  only  the 
Canaries.  They  gave  an  eager  ear  to  the  rumours 
that  were  rife  in  the  Portuguese  islands  of  more 
marvellous  discoveries  still  to  be  made — of  islands 
beyonds  the  Azores.  An  adventurous  Italian, 
Christopher  Columbus,  wandering  among  the  Portu- 
guese possessions,  heard  the  stories.  Happily  for 
Spain,  he  believed  them  and  resolved  to  lead  an  ex- 
pedition to  the  farther  side  of  the  Atlantic.  He 
entered  her  service  and  proved  to  be  an  enthusiast 
of  rare  pertinacity.  It  is  immaterial  whether  the 
idea  of  a  route  to  the  East  Indies  by  the  west 
occurred  to  him  at  the  same  time  he  became  con- 
vinced that  there  were  islands  in  the  far  Atlantic 
waiting  to  be  discovered.  That  which  is  certain 
is  that  he  devoted  his  life  to  persuading  some- 
one in  authority  to  entrust  him  with  ships  and 
men  to  make  a  voyage  to  the  far  West.  The  pilots 
at  Palos  backed  him,  and  he  finally  secured  the  de- 
sired permission  and  means  from  Isabella  of  Castile. 
Her  interest  in  exploration  and  colonisation  had 
been  shown  fifteen  years  before,  in  her  energetic 
measures  in  conquering  the  Canaries  and  forcing 
the  Portuguese  to  renounce  their  claims  to  those 
islands,  and  she  well  deserves  the  title  of  founder  of 
the  colonial  empire  of  Spain. 

The  story  of  Columbus's  first  voyage  needs  no  re- 
telling. He  journeyed  so  far  to  the  west  that  he 
returned  convinced  he  had  reached  the  longitude  of 
eastern  Asia,  and  the  noise  of  his  great  discovery 


THE  AUTHENTIC  PORTRAIT   OF   CHRISTOPHER    COLUMBUS, 

9 


lO  IN  TROD  UCTOR  Y 

resounded  through  Europe  and  began  the  trans- 
formation of  the  world.  Since  the  last  great  century 
— the  thirteenth  —  Christendom  had  retrograded. 
The  Tartars  dominated  Russia  and  the  Turks  were 
pressing  hard  on  Germany.  Unless  the  Christian 
world  could  find  an  outlet — unless  it  could  create 
other  resources  for  itself  and  outside  of  itself;  unless 
feudalism  should  find  an  employment  for  its  military 
energies  outside  of  the  vicious  circle  of  fruitless  and 
purposeless  dynastic  wars,  it  seemed  not  improbable 
that  Mahometan  aggression  would  continue  until  all 
Europe  lay  under  the  deadening  influence  of  the 
Turk.  Only  in  the  Peninsula  was  apparent  that 
spirit  of  expansion  which  is  the  best  indication  of 
internal  vitality  in  a  nation.  The  military  nobility, 
whose  determined  fanaticism,  magnificent  courage, 
and  spirit  of  individual  initiative  had  driven  the 
Moors  out  of  Spain  in  the  thirteenth  century,  wel- 
comed this  fresh  opportunity  to  slay  the  infidel  and 
carve  out  new  fiefs  for  themselves. 

Conquest  of  the  Andes. — Columbus  showed  strate- 
gic genius  of  the  highest  order  in  choosing  Hayti  as 
the  site  of  the  first  settlement.  That  island  afforded 
an  admirable  base  for  the  conquest  of  the  New 
World.  It  was  large  enough  to  furnish  provisions, 
and  was  conveniently  situated  with  reference  to  the 
coasts  and  islands  of  the  Caribbean.  Gold  washings 
were  soon  discovered  in  the  interior  and  the  unwar- 
like  inhabitants  were  at  once  impressed  into  slavery 
to  dig  in  the  mines.  The  news  of  gold  stimulated 
interest  as  nothing  else  could  have  done.  The  Cas- 
tilian  government  took  immediate  steps  to  exclude  all 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST       II 

other  nations.  The  Pope  divided  the  globe  between 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  a  treaty  to  this  effect 
was  negotiated  between  the  two  countries.  Span- 
iards swarmed  over  to  Hayti,  and  thence  expeditions 
were  sent  out  in  every  direction,  headed  by  private 
adventurers  bearing  their  sovereign's  commission. 
The  other  Antilles  were  soon  explored  and,  by  the 
end  of  the  century,  the  Spaniards  had  reached  the 
South  American  mainland  and  rapidly  explored  its 
coast  from  the  Amazon  up  to  the  Isthmus.  Gold 
was  picked  up  in  the  streams  flowing  from  the 
Columbian  Andes  into  the  Caribbean,  A  few  years 
later  the  north-western  coast  of  South  America  was 
granted  out  to  noble  adventurers  who  undertook 
its  conquest  and  exploitation  with  their  own  means. 
The  Isthmian  region  became  the  new  centre  of 
Spanish  power  and  commerce  in  America.  In  15 13, 
Balboa  crossed  the  Isthmus  to  the  Pacific  Ocean — 
an  event  second  in  its  far-reaching  consequences 
only  to  Columbus's  first  voyage.  During  the  follow- 
ing years  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  was  explored,  and  in 
1 5 18  the  greatest  statesman  and  general  whom  Spain 
ever  sent  to  the  new  world — Hernando  Cortes — 
began  the  conquest  of  the  empire  of  the  Aztecs. 

The  mining  done  in  Hayti  and  along  the  Carib- 
bean coast  seemed  pitiably  insignificant  compared 
with  the  treasures  found  in  Mexico.  There  followed 
a  new  influx  of  gentleman  adventurers  who  scoured 
the  coast  in  every  direction  seeking  another  defence- 
less empire  and  mines  as  good  as  those  of  Mexico. 
The  expeditions  down  the  Pacific  coast  of  South 
America  started  from  the  Isthmus.      Peru  was  soon 


i-  R.vNt,l.-.C<_>    IIZAKKO. 
[From  Montain's  Afrterica.l 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      1 3 

fbiind,  and  in  1532,  Pizarro  and  his  band  of  blood- 
thirsty desperadoes,  with  inconceivable  audacity, 
struck  a  vital  blow  at  the  heart  of  the  great  empire 
of  the  Incas  by  capturing  its  emperor.  Within  half 
a  dozen  years  nearly  the  whole  of  the  vast  region 
over  which  the  Inca  power  had  extended  was  over- 
run and  the  outlying  provinces  were  ready  to  submit 
at  demand. 

The  rapidity  with  which  a  little  band  of  Spaniards 
conquered  the  vast  and  warlike  empire  of  the 
Incas  is  well-nigh  incredible.  The  terror  inspired 
by  horses  and  firearms  did  much,  but  the  capture 
of  their  emperor  demoralised  the  imperial  Inca  tribes 
still  more.  Once  in  the  possession  of  the  sacred  per- 
son of  the  monarch,  the  Spaniards  were  regarded  by 
the  Indians  as  his  mouthpiece  and  the  successor  to  his 
power.  From  Cuzco,  the  capital,  a  splendid  system 
of  roads  and  communications  radiated  to  every  part 
of  the  empire.  The  military  and  political  domi- 
nance of  the  imperial  tribes  had  weakened  the  power 
of  resistance  in  the  provinces.  The  elaborate  struc- 
ture which  had  been  built  up  by  the  Incas  rather 
facilitated  than  hindered  the  Spanish  conquest,  once 
the  decisive  blow  had  been  given  at  the  centre.  The 
provinces  submitted  to  the  new  rulers  as  fast  as  the 
Spanish  columns  could  march  over  the  magnificent 
mountain  roads. 

South  from  Cuzco  the  Inca  empire  extended 
2000  miles.  It  covered  the  whole  Andean  region 
as  far  as  the  37th  degree  of  south  latitude  and  ex- 
tended from  the  Pacific  to  the  eastern  slopes  of 
the  Andean  foothills.     In  the  present  Argentine  it 


14  IN  TROD  UC  TOR  Y 

included  the  tribes  living  in  the  lesser  chains  which 
occupy  the  north-western  part  of  the  republic. 
Some  of  these  Argentine  tribes  seem  to  have  been 
only  tributary  to  the  Incas,  others  were  completely 
dependent,  and  extensive  colonies  had  been  founded 
in  the  cotton  regions.  The  general  language  was 
Inca,  and  that  admirable  system  of  irrigation  and 
intensive  culture  which  made  Peru  proper  a  gar- 
den had  been  introduced  on  the  eastern  slopes  of 
the  southern  Andes. 

The  southern  part  of  the  great  Bolivian  plateau 
seems  to  have  submitted  quietly  to  the  Spanish 
conquerors,  and  the  stream  of  adventurers  passed  on 
to  the  south.  In  1542,  Diego  de  Rojas  led  the  first 
expedition,  of  which  a  record  has  survived,  down 
through  the  Humahuaca  valley  into  the  actual  terri- 
tory of  the  Argentine.  He  himself  perished  in  a 
fight  with  a  wild  tribe  near  the  main  chain  of  the 
Andes,  but  his  followers  continued  their  march. 
Near  Tucuman,  they  passed  out  from  the  mountain 
defiles  unto  the  pampa,  and,  leaving  the  desert  to 
their  right  penetrated  through  Santiago  and  Cor- 
doba, to  the  Parand. 

No  permanent  settlement  was  then  made,  but  the 
reports  of  thousands  of  peaceable  and  wealthy  In- 
dians inhabiting  irrigated  valleys,  and  the  accounts 
of  the  magnificent  pastures  which  stretched  away 
to  the  east,  soon  tempted  the  Spaniards  to  take  per- 
manent possession.  Seven  years  after  the  first  ex- 
ploration a  town  was  founded  in  latitude  27°,  mid- 
way between  the  Andes  and  the  Parand.  About 
the  same  time  other  adventurers  came  pouring  over 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      1$ 

the  Andes  from  northern  Chile,  and  this  current 
soon  joined  that  from  the  north.  The  Spaniards 
estabhshed  themselves  as  feudal  lords,  and  the  un- 
happy Indians  were  divided  among  them.  In  one 
district,  forty-seven  thousand  Indians  were  divided 
among  fifty-six  grantees.  In  1553,  Santiago  de 
Estero,  for  many  years  the  capital  of  the  province 
of  Tucuman  was  founded. 

In  1 561,  the  governor  of  Chile  sent  from  Santiago 
de  Chile  over  the  Andes  an  expedition  which  founded 
the  city  of  Mendoza  in  a  most  beautiful  region, 
where  the  vine  flourishes  in  perfection,  and  where  a 
wonderful  system  of  irrigation,  inherited  from  the 
Indians,  still  exists  to  attest  the  latters'  engineering 
skill.  Next  year  San  Juan  was  founded,  and  these 
two  towns  were  the  centres  for  the  settlement  of  the 
province  of  Cuyo,  which  remained  a  part  of  Chile  for 
two  hundred  years.  The  immigrants  from  northern 
Chile  and  Bolivia  established  Tucuman  in  the  tropi- 
cal garden  spot  of  the  republic  in  1565.  From 
Santiago  del  Estero,  in  1573,  an  expedition  was  sent 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  south  to  a  region 
of  fertile  valleys  and  plains  at  the  foot  of  a  beautiful 
mountain  range.  This  was  Cordoba,  which  at  once 
became,  and  has  since  remained,  the  most  populous 
of  the  interior  provinces. 

By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Spanish 
power  was  firmly  established  in  settlements  that  have 
since  become  the  Argentine  provinces  of  Jujuy, 
Salta,  Tucuman,  Catamarca,  Santiago,  Rioja,  and 
Cordoba.  All  these  really  formed  a  southern  exten- 
gion  of  Upper  Peru,     Their  geographical,  political, 


i6 


INTRODUCTORY 


and  commercial  relations  were  with  Charcas,  Po- 
tosi,  and  Lima.  The  discovery,  in  1545,  of  the 
great  silver  mines  at  Potosi  at  once  made  the  high 
Bolivian  plateau,  then  known  as  the  Audiencia  of 
Charcas,  the  most  valuable  and  important  province 
of  all  the  Spanish  monarch's  South  American  em- 


MINTNG    SCENE. 
[Redrawn  from  Gottfriedt'siVf«w  lVe/t.'\ 

pire.  In  1571,  the  discovery  of  quicksilver  mines  in 
Peru  vastly  increased  the  output  of  precious  metals; 
in  1575,  the  wonderful  Oruro  mines  were  opened, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  century  the  copper-pan 
amalgamation  process  was  invented  in  Bolivia,  revo- 
lutionising the  production  of  silver, 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      IJ 

The  resulting  prosperity  of  the  mining  regions  of 
Bolivia  stimulated  the  settlement  of  the  north-west- 
ern provinces  of  the  Argentine.  The  miners  needed 
provisions  which  could  not  well  be  raised  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Potosi.  There  was  a  demand  for 
cattle  for  beef,  and  for  horses  and  mules  for  trans- 
portation. A  solid  economic  foundation  was  thus 
provided  for  the  plains  settlements,  and  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  Indians  and  the  breeding  of  cattle  went 
on  apace.  By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
north-western  Argentine — the  province  of  Tucuman, 
as  it  was  then  called — was  the  seat  of  many  thriving 
settlements  whose  Spanish  inhabitants  were  mostly 
pastoral.  The  Indians  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
each  settlement  had  been  reduced  to  slavery,  and 
cultivated  the  fields  tliat  had  been  their  fathers'  for 
the  benefit  of  their  white  masters.  The  Spanish 
proprietors  lived  like  feudal  lords,  while  the  Spanish 
authorities  left  these  remote  regions  largely  to  their 
own  devices. 

Conditions  in  Cuyo,  the  western  province  just 
across  the  Andes  from  Santiago  de  Chile,  were  sub- 
stantially the  same.  A  political  dependency  of 
Chile,  the  few  external  relations  it  had  were  with 
that  captaincy-general.  The  Spanish  grantees  ruled 
their  Indian  slaves  in  patriarchal  fashion  ;  agriculture 
was  the  principal  occupation ;  pastoral  industry  was 
not  so  profitable  as  in  Tucuman,  and  the  region  was 
more  isolated.  In  both  Tucuman  and  Cuyo  Spanish 
rule  was  superimposed  upon  a  previously  existing 
commercial  and  social  structure.  There  was  no 
attempt  to  expel  or   destroy    the    aborigines.     On 


1 8  INTRODUCTORY 

the  contrary,  they  were  the  sole  labourers  and  their 
exertions  the  chief  source  of  the  wealth  of  their  con- 
querors. There  began  a  process  of  approximation 
and  mutual  assimilation  between  the  Spaniards  and 
their  semi-civilised  subjects.  While  the  former  con- 
tinued to  be  a  privileged  and  ruling  caste,  the  latter 
absorbed  much  European  knowledge  from  them. 
The  Indian  language  long  held  its  own  alongside  of 
the  Spanish  and  is  still  spoken  in  many  parts  of  the 
region. 

On  the  Atlantic  side,  among  degraded  peoples 
who  had  not  progressed  beyond  the  wandering 
and  tribal  stages  of  existence,  Spanish  settlement 
proceeded  on  entirely  different  lines.  There  ex- 
isted no  well-organised  body  politic,  into  whose 
control  the  conquerors  could  step  with  hardly  an  in- 
terruption to  industry.  Campaigns  could  not  be 
made  with  the  confident  expectation  of  finding 
abundant  accumulations  of  food  en  route.  Expe- 
ditions among  the  squalid  tribes  were  slow  and 
dangerous  and  settlement  stuck  close  to  the  rivers 
instead  of  following  fearlessly  across  the  plateau  to 
the  spots  where  the  finest  lands  and  the  most  flour- 
ishing Indian  communities  lay  ready  for  the  spoiler. 

The  beginnings  of  the  coast  provinces  were  pain- 
ful and  disastrous;  the  settlements  were  feeble; 
centuries  elapsed  before  the  natural  advantages  of 
the  region  were  utilised,  and  before  its  accessibility 
and  fertility  drew  a  great  immigration.  The  assimi- 
lation of  Indian  blood  did  not  take  place  on  a  large 
scale,  and  the  immigrants  and  their  descendants  be- 
came perforce  horsemen  and  fighters. 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE   CONQUEST       1 9 

Discovery  of  the  Plate. — The  Portuguese  discovery 
of  the  east  coast  of  South  America,  in  15CX3,  was  a 
disagreeable  surprise  to  the  Spanish  government. 
The  Treaty  of  Tordesillas  had  been  framed  with  the 
purpose  of  giving  America  to  Spain,  while  Africa 
and  the  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean  were  left  to 
Portugal.  Nevertheless,  the  Portuguese  vigorously 
asserted  their  right  to  the  prize  they  had  picked  up 
by  accident  and  insisted  on  the  letter  of  the  treaty. 
They  promptly  explored  the  coast  as  far  south  as 
Santa  Catharina,  six  hundred  miles  north  of  the 
Plate,  but  they  had  asserted  no  ownership  farther 
south  at  the  date  when  the  Spanish  expeditions 
began  to  be  sent  to  the  South  Atlantic. 

In  1 5 16,  a  celebrated  sea-captain  from  the  north 
of  Spain — Juan  Diaz  de  Solis — was  sent  out  by 
the  Castilian  government  to  explore  the  southern 
part  of  the  continent.  He  simply  reconnoitred  the 
Brazilian  coast,  where  the  Portuguese  had  not  yet 
established  any  settlements,  and,  pressing  on  to  the 
south,  finally  reached  the  Plate.  His  first  impres- 
sion on  rounding  Cape  St.  Maria,  where  the  Uru- 
guayan shore  turns  to  the  north-west,  was  that  he 
had  reached  the  southern  point  of  the  continent  and 
discovered  the  sea  route  into  the  Pacific.  But  the 
freshness  of  the  water  in  the  great  estuary  unde- 
ceived him.  Following  along  the  northern  bank,  he 
landed  with  a  small  party  and  was  attacked  and 
slain  by  a  tribe  of  fierce  and  intractable  Indians. 

When  the  news  reached  Lisbon,  the  Portuguese 
government  protested  against  this  invasion  of  terri- 
tory, which  it  claimed  lay  east  of  the  Tordesillas 


20  INTRODUCTORY 

line.  Portugal,  however,  did  not  follow  up  her 
protest  or  try  to  take  possession  for  herself.  At 
this  very  time  a  celebrated  Portuguese  navigator, 
Fernando  Magellan,  disgusted  by  the  neglect  of  his 
own  country,  was  urging  the  Spanish  government 
to  give  him  the  means  of  carrying  out  his  great  pro- 
ject for  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe.  He  was 
confident  he  could  reach  the  East  Indies  by  rounding 
the  southern  point  of  South  America  or  by  finding  a 
passage  through  the  continent  in  higher  latitudes 
than  had  yet  been  reached.  The  year  15 19,  when 
Magellan  sailed  from  San  Lucar  on  the  first  voyage 
around  the  world,  was  big  with  fate  for  Spain. 
Cortes  was  adding  a  new  empire  by  the  conquest  of 
Mexico,  thus  giving  Spain  control  of  the  world's 
supply  of  precious  metals.  The  popular  assemblies 
of  Castile  and  Aragon,  of  Catalonia,  Valencia,  and 
Galicia,  were  preparing  for  a  hopeless  struggle 
against  the  might  of  a  monarch  who  ruled  two- 
thirds  of  Europe.  At  the  very  moment  that  Charles 
V.  was  crushing  Peninsular  freedom  by  brutal  mili- 
tary force,  the  genius  of  Magellan  and  Cortes  gave 
him  the  whole  of  America.  Spain  had  heretofore  been 
a  federation  of  self-governing  communes  and  pro- 
vinces, but  their  independence  was  now  destroyed. 
Military  despotism  proved  strong  enough  to  crush 
liberty,  although  it  was  unable  to  stamp  out  the  feel- 
ing of  local  segregation.  The  very  soldiers  that  con- 
quered America  took  over  an  instinctive  feeling  that 
the  central  government  was  dangerous  and  inimical 
to  the  people  —  a  sentiment  which  has  always  sur- 
vived in  some  form  among  their  descendants. 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AhW    THE    CONQUEST      21 

Magellan  stopped  at  the  Plate  in  the  beginning  of 
3520,  and  explored  the  estuary  to  make  sure  that  it 
did  not  afford  the  passage  he  was  seeking.  In 
October  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  strait  that 
bears  his  name,  and,  wonderfully  favoured  by  wind 
and  weather,  threaded  his  way  to  the  Pacific  in  five 
weeks.  Subsequent  wayfarers  were  not  so  fortunate 
and  the  strait  never  became  a  practicable  commer- 
cial route  until  after  the  introduction  of  steam  navi- 
gation. In  the  succeeding  hundred  years  not  half 
a  dozen  ships  reached  the  Pacific  around  South 
America.  Practically,  the  Pacific  was  accessible 
only  over  the  Isthmus  or  by  the  immensely  long 
journey  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Never- 
theless, the  importance  of  this  epoch-making  voyage 
has  not  been  overestimated.  The  Pacific  became, 
in  a  sense,  a  Spanish  lake,  in  which  she  could  main- 
tain at  will  a  naval  preponderance.  She  occupied 
the  Philippines  and  secured  control  at  leisure  of  the 
Pacific  coast  of  America.  However,  the  scientific 
results  were  more  important.  Thereafter,  the  thor- 
ough exploration  of  all  the  shores  of  the  South  Sea 
was  only  a  question  of  time.  Magellan's  voyage 
made  geography  an  exact  science.  He  sketched  the 
map  of  the  world  with  broad  and  sure  strokes  and 
left  nothing  for  subsequent  explorers  except  the 
filling-in  of  details. 

The  occupation  of  the  Philippines  and  Moluccas 
gave  rise  to  new  disputes  between  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal as  to  their  rights  under  the  Treaty  of  Tordesil- 
las.  The  imperfect  instruments  of  those  days  left 
the  line  doubtful  on  the  eastern  South  American 


22  IN  TROD  UCTOR  Y 

coast,  as  well  as  on  the  other  side  of  the  world.  In 
1526,  Sebastian  Cabot  was  sent  by  the  Spanish 
government  to  determine  astronomically  the  location 
of  the  line  in  America,  and  then  to  follow  Magellan's 
track  to  western  Asia.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Plate 
he  heard  rumours  among  the  Indians  of  silver  mines 
on  the  river's  banks  and  of  the  existence  of  a 
great  and  wealthy  empire  at  its  headwaters.  This 
was  Peru — not  yet  reached  by  the  Castilians  on 
their  way  south  from  the  Isthmus,  but  the  coast 
Indians  showed  Cabot  silver  ornaments  which  had 
been  passed  from  hand  to  hand  from  the  high- 
lands o^  Peru  and  Bolivia  down  the  river  to  the 
Atlantic. 

Cabot  and  his  band  of  adventurers  determined  to 
neglect  their  surveying,  trusting  that  the  discovery 
of  silver  mines  would  excuse  their  disobedience. 
They  spent  three  years  in  vain  journeying  and  pro- 
specting—  exploring  the  Uruguay  to  the  head  of 
navigation  and  following  up  the  Parand  as  far  as  the 
Apip^  rapids.  Signs  of  neither  silver  nor  gold,  nor 
of  civilised  inhabitants,  were  found  on  either  river. 
Their  upper  courses  came  down  from  the  east — the 
direction  opposite  to  that  in  which  Eldorado  was 
reported.  The  gently  flowing  Paraguay,  coming 
down  the  plains  in  the  centre  of  the  continent, 
seemed  to  offer  a  better  hope  of  success.  But 
Cabot's  forces  and  provisions  were  inadequate  to 
penetrating  farther  north  than  the  present  site  of 
Asuncion.  Returning  to  a  fort  he  had  left  on  the 
lower  Parana,  he  found  that  it  had  been  taken  by 
Indians  and  its  garrison  massacred.      Discouraged 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE   CONQUEST      23 

by  such  a  succession  of  difficulties  and  misfortunes, 
he  returned  to  Spain. 

The  news  of  Cabot's  expedition,  and  its  failure, 
stimulated  the  Portuguese  to  undertake  the  coloni- 
sation of  the  east  coast  of  South  America.  Affonso 
da  Souza  started  from  Lisbon  with  an  expedition, 
intending  to  take  possession  of  the  Plate.  Lack  of 
provisions,  fear  of  the  Indians,  the  presence  of  a 
Portuguese  castaway  —  one  of  those  insignificant 
chances  that  sometimes  change  the  course  of  em- 
pires as  a  twig  diverts  the  current  of  a  river  — 
stopped  Affonso  before  he  reached  his  destination. 
Instead  of  establishing  a  colony  on  the  estuary  he 
founded  San  Vicente,  just  south  of  the  Tropic  of 
Capricorn.  This  became  the  southern  outpost  of 
the  Portuguese  possessions,  and  the  temperate  zone 
of  South  America  was  left  open  for  the  Spaniards  to 
occupy  when  they  chose. 

Two  years  after  Cabot's  failure,  Pizarro  overran 
Peru.  All  Europe  rang  with  the  exploit.  The 
Spanish  king  was  besieged  by  nobles  who  literally 
begged  tile  privilege  of  risking  their  lives  and  for- 
tunes in  America.  These  "adelantados"  contracted 
to  conquer,  at  their  own  charges,  the  particular  dis- 
tricts granted  them,  certain  profits  being  reserved  to 
the  crown,  and  Charles  V.  freely  granted  such 
patents.  Among  the  grantees  was  a  Basque  noble- 
man, Pedro  de  Mendoza,  to  whom  was  given  the 
territory  beginning  at  the  Portuguese  possessions 
south  two  hundred  leagues  along  the  Atlantic  coast 
toward  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  He  raised  more 
than  two  thousand  men  and  reached  the  Plate  in 


24  INTRODUCTORY 

1535,  where  he  immediately  founded  a  city  on  the 
south  bank  which  he  named  Buenos  Aires.  He 
intended  to  make  it  a  base  for  an  advance  up  the 
Parana  to  find  and  conquer  another  Peru.  His  at- 
tempt was  foredoomed  to  failure.  The  Indians 
surrounding  Buenos  Aires  were  implacable  in  their 
hatred  of  the  invaders.  They  lived  in  scattered 
little  tribes,  and  neither  would  nor  could  furnish 
food  enough  to  maintain  the  Spaniards.  The  pro- 
visions brought  from  Spain  were  inadequate;  sorties 
were  useless;  the  Indians  fled  from  large  parties  and 
ambushed  small  ones.  The  preparations  for  the 
advanc"  up  the  river  were  delayed  for  months. 
Hundreds  died  of  hunger  and  disease.  Within  a 
year  the  place  had  to  be  abandoned,  and  in  a  des- 
perate condition  the  expedition  fled  up  the  river  to 
Cabot's  solid  fort.  Here  the  adelantado  stopped, 
sick  and  discouraged,  while  a  few  hundreds  of  the 
more  daring  and  persevering  pressed  on  to  the 
north,  determined  to  reach  Eldorado.  Arrived  at 
the  junction  of  the  Paraguay  and  Parana,  they  chose 
the  former  river,  and  pushed  on  up  it  as  far  as  the 
twentieth  degree,  to  a  place  they  called  Candelaria. 
There  they  found  vast  lakes  and  swamps  spreading 
to  the  west.  It  was  necessary  to  protect  their  re- 
treat before  plunging  into  the  difificuit  country  that 
extends  across  to  Bolivia.  Accordingly,  they  di- 
vided and  one  party  remained  on  the  dry  ground 
near  the  river,  while  two  hundred  desperate  adven- 
turers  pressed  on  through  the  wilderness,  hoping  to 
reach  the  Bolivian  plateau. 

The  party  that  stopped  behind  as  a  reserve  was 


THE   DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      2$ 

commanded  by  Domingo  Irala,  the  real  founder  of 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  the  Parana  valley.  The 
main  expedition  never  returned.  Years  afterward 
friendly  Indians  brought  back  the  tale  that  it  had 
reached  the  slopes  of  the  Bolivian  mountains,  ob- 
tained much  gold  and  silver  and  started  back 
triumphantly,  but  had  perished  to  the  last  man  in 
an  Indian  ambush  not  far  from  the  Paraguay  and 
safety.  Irala  waited  the  appointed  time  and  then 
floated  down  the  river.  He  and  his  companions 
were  well-nigh  in  despair.  So  far  as  they  knew, 
they  were  the  only  survivors  of  the  three  thousand 
people  who  had  accompanied  Mendoza.  To  the 
north  the  country  was  inhospitable  and  impene- 
trable, and  from  their  experiences  of  the  year  before 
they  knew  that  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  no  pro- 
visions or  succour  were  to  be  had.  On  their  way  up 
the  river  they  had  passed,  about  the  twenty-fifth 
degree,  a  beautiful  and  fertile  rolling  country,  cov- 
ered with  magnificent  forests,  with  park-like  open- 
ings, and  inhabited  by  a  large  and  friendly  Indian 
population.  Opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Pilcomayo, 
where  there  was  a  large  Indian  village,  they  stopped 
on  their  downward  journey,  determined  to  settle 
down  and  take  some  repose  from  their  interminable 
and  fruitless  wanderings  in  search  of  the  will-o'-the- 
wisp  Eldorado.  There,  in  1536,  they  founded  the 
city  of  Asuncion,  the  first  Spanish  settlement  on  the 
Atlantic  slope  of  South  America. 

T/te  Foundation  of  Buenos  Aircs,-^T\\^  failure  of 
Mendoza,  first  adelantado,  to  establish  a  colony  on 
the  Plate,  did  not  discourage  others  frgm  soliciting 


26  IN  TROD  UC  TOR  Y 

the  grant  of  his  territory.  In  1540,  Cabeza  de 
Vaca,  a  "conquistador"  celebrated  for  his  feats  in 
Florida,  was  appointed  adelantado  and  set  out  gal- 
lantly to  find  the  second  Peru,  which  everyone  be- 
lieved to  exist  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Paraguay. 
Intent  on  reaching  the  interior  as  soon  as  possible, 
he  made  no  attempt  to  establish  a  town  and  port  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Plate,  but  landed  at  Santa 
Catharina  on  what  is  now  the  Brazilian  coast  in  the 
latitude  of  Paraguay,  and  set  off  across  country  with 
four  hundred  men  and  twenty  horses.  The  distance 
was  a  thousand  miles;  the  route  led  up  a  heavily 
wooded  mountain  range  on  the  coast,  and  thence 
across  a  broken,  but  open,  plateau,  where  great 
rivers  point  out  the  natural  routes  to  the  Parand. 
The  soil  was  fertile  and  the  Indians  along  the  road 
were  able  to  furnish  considerable  food  supplies. 
Cabeza  de  Vaca  made  the  journey  without  ap- 
preciable loss  and  arrived  in  Asuncion  eager  to 
take  command  and  dash  across  to  the  Andes. 
But  the  sturdy  Basques  had  selected  their  able 
countryman  —  Domingo  Irala — as  chief  of  the 
colony  and  gave  the  new  adelantado  a  cold  wel- 
come. Irala  insisted  that  a  reconnoitring  expedi- 
tion be  sent  before  risking  the  body  of  the  Spaniards. 
Its  command  was  given  him  and  he  penetrated 
almost  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Paraguay.  Next 
year  Cabeza  de  Vaca  followed,  but  as  soon  as  he 
left  the  Paraguay  he  got  into  difficulties.  He  could 
not  penetrate  the  swamps  nor  make  headway  against 
the  savage  Indians  who  lived  between  the  river  and 
the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Cordillera.     He  returned 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE   CONQUEST      2/ 

defeated  and  discouraged,  and  the  people  of  Asun- 
cion bundled  him  back  to  Spain. 

Though  Irala  subsequently  did  succeed  in  reach- 
ing Peru,  by  the  route  up  the  Paraguay,  no  practical 
results  followed.  Paraguay  remained  isolated  from 
the  Spanish  empire  on  the  Pacific  coast  until  a 
roundabout  communication  was  established  down 
the  river  and  thence  west  across  the  dry  and  level 
plains  that  stretch  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Plate 
to  the  Cordillera. 

The  early  days  of  the  Asuncion  settlement  were 
stormy.  The  rough  adventurers  fell  to  fighting 
among  themselves,  and  their  cruelties  often  drove 
the  patient  and  submissive  Indians  into  rebellion. 
Their  greed  for  bigger  plantations  and  more  slaves 
pushed  them  on  to  conquering  the  aborigines  in  an 
expanding  circle.  By  1553  they  had  founded  a 
settlement  on  the  Upper  Parana  and  were  dominant 
from  river  to  river  in  the  southern  half  of  the  present 
territory  of  Paraguay.  Until  his  death,  in  1557, 
Irala  was  the  dominating  personality  in  the  colony. 
According  to  his  lights  he  was  just  in  his  dealings 
with  the  Indians.  When  he  died  the  settlement 
was  firmly  on  its  feet,  and  even  the  Indians  revered 
him  as  their  benefactor.  The  mass  of  the  population 
was  Indian,  and  Guarany  has  always  remained  the 
prevalent  language  in  Paraguay.  Absolutely  iso- 
lated from  the  other  European  colonies,  and  almost 
without  communication  with  the  mother  country, 
the  settlement  was,  however,  an  unpromising  affair. 
The  few  hundreds  of  Spaniards  might  have  sustained 
their  social  and  military  superiority  over  the  hordes  of 


28 


INTRODUCTOR  Y 


Indians  by  whom  they  were  surrounded,  but,  with- 
out  material  and  intellectual  communication  with 
Spain,  they  could  achieve  no  commercial  success. 


YOUNG  GAUCHO. 
[From  a  lithograph.] 


An  outlet  to  the  sea  was  necessary.  The  original 
settlers  had  been  adventurers,  willing  to  follow  Men- 
doza  through  swamp  and  forest  up  to  the  walls  of 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      2g 

Eldorado,  and  their  children  were  not  less  enter- 
prising. The  horses  brought  over  by  the  adelanta- 
dos  had  multiplied  amazingly,  and  were  spreading 
wild  over  the  pampa  to  the  south.  Cattle,  sheep, 
and  goats  bred  by  millions.  Before  long  the  attrac- 
tions of  a  pastoral  life  began  to  appeal  to  the 
Spaniards  and  Creoles  of  Asuncion.  The  braver 
and  more  energetic  preferred  the  free  open  existence 
of  the  pampa  to  idleness  in  the  sleepy  villages  of 
Paraguay. 

The  Argentine  nation  proper  began  its  existence 
when  the  Creole  mounted  his  horse  and  took  to 
cattle-breeding  on  the  plains.  The  possession  of 
horses,  as  much  as  of  firearms,  gave  the  gaucho  his 
military  predominance  over  the  fiercest  aborigines, 
and  the  horse  was  also  the  cornerstone  of  his  indus- 
trial system.  The  cattle  of  the  open  pampa  gave 
him  an  unlimited  supply  of  the  best  food,  and  his 
horses  enabled  him  to  procure  it  with  a  minimum  of 
effort.  Irala's  successors  repeatedly  tried  to  estab- 
lish a  colony  near  the  mouth  of  the  Plate,  but  they 
were  not  successful  until  the  Creoles  on  horseback  had 
pushed  their  way  south  along  the  pampa  and  driven 
back  or  subdued  the  wandering  Indians.  In  1560, 
the  Guaranies  of  Paraguay  w^ere  definitely  crushed 
in  the  horribly  bloody  battle  of  Acari,  but  it  was 
not  until  1573  that  the  Spaniards  from  Asuncion 
succeeded  in  founding  a  city  south  of  the  confluence 
of  the  Parand  and  Paraguay.  Santa  Fe  w^as  the  first 
Spanish  settlement  on  the  Plate  in  territory  now  a 
part  of  the  Argentine  Republic. 

The  man  who  led  the  Creoles  to  the  pampa  was 


30  IN  TROD  UC  TOR  Y 

Juan  de  Garay,  a  Basque,  who  had  been  one  of  the 
soldiers  ni  the  army  that  conquered  Peru.  His 
energy  and  vigour,  and  the  bravery  of  the  Creole 
cavalry  who  followed  his  expeditions  down  the  river 
and  over  the  pampas,  at  length  opened  up  commu- 
nication from  Paraguay  to  Europe  and  gave  Spain  a 
seaport  on  the  South  Atlantic.  Curiously  enough, 
in  the  very  year  that  Garay  founded  Santa  Fe,  the 
Spaniards  from  Peru  founded  Cordoba — the  most 
eastward  of  the  Andean  settlements.  Their  hard 
riders  had  pushed  on  from  Cordoba,  reconnoitring 
as  far  as  the  Parand  and  there  ran  across  Garay 's 
men.  The  two  currents  of  Argentine  settlements 
met  almost  at  the  beginning,  though  two  centuries 
were  to  elapse  before  they  completely  coalesced. 

Eight  years  later,  Garay  succeeded  in  founding 
Buenos  Aires  after  Zarate,  the  third  adelantado, 
had  failed  as  badly  as  any  of  his  predecessors. 
Garay,  by  sheer  force  of  energy  and  fitness,  became 
the  real  ruler  of  the  settlements.  Active,  far-sighted, 
and  able,  he  perceived  that  a  purely  military  estab- 
lishment at  the  mouth  of  the  river  was  foredoomed 
to  failure.  To  be  permanent,  the  port  and  town 
must  be  self-sustaining,  and  therefore  must  be  sur- 
rounded by  farms  and  ranches  and  be  accessible  by 
land  from  the  upper  settlements.  In  the  spring  of 
1580,  the  acting  governor  sent  overland  from  Santa 
F6  two  hundred  families  of  Guarany  Indians,  accom- 
panied by  a  thousand  horses,  two  hundred  cows,  and 
fifty  sheep,  besides  mares,  carts,  oxen,  and  other 
necessaries.  The  soldiers  of  the  convoy  were 
mostly   Creoles   born    in   Paraguay.     Boats  carried 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE    CONQUEST      3 1 

down  from  Santa  Fe  arms,  munitions,  seed  grain, 
tools,  and  whatever  in  those  rude  days  was  essential 
to  a  settlement.  He,  himself,  went  by  land  with 
forty  soldiers,  following  the  highland  that  skirts  the 
west  bank  of  the  Parana  from  Santa  Fe  to  Buenos 
Aires, 

The  Plate  estuary  affords  no  proper  harbours;  the 
immense  volume  of  water  spreading  over  vast  shal- 
low beds  chokes  it  with  sand-bars,  and  the  shores  are 
so  shelving  that  even  small  boats  cannot  approach 
the  land.  The  north  side  is  bolder,  and  at  Monte- 
video and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Uruguay  affords  bays 
partly  sheltered  from  the  storms  which  sweep  up  over 
the  level  pampas  and  make  anchorage  in  the  river  so 
unsafe.  But  the  north  bank  was  cut  off  from  land 
communication  with  the  existing  Spanish  towns  by 
the  mighty  Uruguay  and  Parana,  and  Garay  desired 
that  his  new  city  should  be  always  accessible  from 
his  older  settlements  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Parana. 
His  choice  of  the  particular  spot  where  the  largest 
city  of  the  southern  hemisphere  has  since  grown  up, 
seems  to  have  been  determined  by  a  few  trifling  cir- 
cumstances. He  kept  as  near  the  head  of  the  estu- 
ary as  possible,  in  order  to  shorten  the  land  route 
froni  Santa  Fe,  and  picked  upon  a  slight  rise  of 
ground  between  two  draws,  which  made  the  site 
defensible.  The  fact  that  a  nearby  creek  —  the 
Riachuelo — afforded  a  shelter  for  little  boats,  may 
also  have  been  given  weight  in  reaching  a  decision. 

Though  his  settlers  did  not  number  five  hundred, 
Garay  laid  out  his  city  like  a  town-site  boomer. 
The  surrounding  country  was  divided  into  ranches 


32  IN  TROD  UC  TOR  V 

and  the  neighbouring  Indians  were  distributed 
among  the  citizens  of  the  new  town.  A  "Cabildo,"or 
city  council,  was  named,  with  the  full  paraphernalia 
of  a  Spanish  municipal  government.  The  new  town 
started  off  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  guarantees 
known  to  immemorial  Spanish  constitutional  law. 
Troubles  broke  out  almost  immediately  between  the 
Creole  settlers  and  the  Spaniards  who  had  been  sent 
over  by  the  adelantado  to  fill  ofBces  and  get  the  best 
things  in  distributions  of  land  and  slaves.  Garay 
had  hardly  left  the  town  to  look  after  the  rest  of  the 
province  than  the  Creoles,  indignant  over  unfair 
treatment,  forcibly  demanded  an  open  Cabildo. 
This  was  an  extraordinary  popular  assembly  which, 
according  to  old  Spanish  custom,  might  be  called  at 
critical  times,  and  was  something  like  a  town  meet, 
ing.  In  theory,  the  property-owners  and  educated 
citizens  were  called  together  merely  to  give  advice, 
but  in  practice,  it  was  a  tumultuous  assemblage  to 
overawe  the  office-holders.  The  Argentine  Creoles 
were  doing  nothing  more  than  asserting  their  con-- 
stitutional  rights  as  vassals  of  the  king  of  Castile. 
They  compelled  the  Spanish  of^ce-holders  to  com- 
promise. 

Meanwhile,  Garay  was  clinching  his  claim  to  im- 
mortality as  the  founder  of  the  Spanish  power  on 
the  Plate.  He  explored  the  pampas  to  the  south 
and  west  of  the  new  city,  and  reduced  many  of  the 
tribes  to  slavery  or  vassalage.  He  found  the  plains 
already  overrun  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
horses — the  descendants  of  the  few  abandoned  there 
forty-five  years  before  when  the  remnants  of  Men- 


THE  DISCOVERIES  AND    THE   CONQUEST     33 

doza's  ill-starred  expedition  fled  up  the  river.  On 
his  way  back  to  Santa  Fe  this  great  Indian  fighter 
was  ambushed  by  Indians  and  stabbed  while  he 
slept. 

His  death  was  followed  by  outbreaks  among  the 
Creoles,  who  resented  the  efforts  of  the  adelantado's 
new  representatives  to  establish  a  monopoly  in 
horse-hair.  .  Scarcely  had  they  found  a  way  to  make 
a  little  money,  by  hunting  wild  horses  for  their  hair, 
than  the  officials  tried  to  absorb  all  the  profit.  The 
struggle  between  the  repressive  commercial  policy 
of  Spain,  and  the  interests  of  the  Plate  colonists, 
began  with  the  foundation  of  the  colony  of  Buenos 
Aires  and  went  on  for  more  than  two  hundred  years. 

In  1588,  the  Creoles  obtained  a  foothold  in  the  ex- 
treme north  of  the  mesopotamian  region  by  founding 
the  cityof  Corrientes  near  the  junction  of  the  Parana 
and  Paraguay.  All  the  new  commonwealths  south 
of  Asuncion  obtained  a  solid  economic  foundation  in 
the  herds  of  cattle  and  horses  which  covered  the 
plains.  In  the  regions  adjacent  to  the  Andes  the 
Spaniards  did  not  become  so  exclusively  pastoral  as 
their  brethren  of  the  pampas  near  the  Plate.  While 
they  had  more  and  better  Indian  slaves,  their  pastur- 
age was  not  so  good.  Though  apparently  more 
isolated,  their  proximity  to  Upper  Peru  and  the 
trade  that  went  on  with  that  great  mining  country 
— the  goal  of  fortune-hunting  Spaniards  in  those 
years — placed  them  more  directly  under  the  control 
of  the  viceregal  authorities.  Tucuman  was  a  mere 
southern  extension  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audien- 
cia  at  Charcas,  and  Cuyo  was  an  integral  part  of  Chile, 


34  INTRODUCTORY 

but  this  did  not  prevent  the  early  development  of  a 
strong  sentiment  in  favour  of  local  self-government 
and  of  hatred  of  the  imported  Spanish  satraps. 

By  the  year  1617  the  settlements  on  the  Lower 
Parana  had  become  of  considerable  importance. 
Buenos  Aires  was  a  town  of  three  thousand  people ; 
the  right  bank  of  the  river  as  far  as  Santa  Fe  was  a 
grazing-ground  for  the  herds  of  the  Creoles ;  towns 
and  ranches  were  flourishing  in  Corrientes.  In  that 
year  the  Spanish  crown  abolished  the  office  of  ade- 
lantado  and  erected  the  lower  settlements  into  a 
province  separate  from  Paraguay.  The  new  pro- 
vince included  the  territory  that  is  now  Uruguay, 
as  well  as  the  four  actual  Argentine  provinces  of 
Buenos  Aires,  Santa  Fe,  Entre  Rios  and  Corrientes. 
Entre  Rios  and  Uruguay  were,  however,  as  yet 
entirely  unsettled. 

While  the  Creoles  were  thus  firmly  establishing 
themselves  along  the  Lower  Parana  and  in  the  An- 
dean provinces,  the  Jesuits  were  converting  the 
Indians  in  the  east  of  Paraguay,  and  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century  these  indefatigable  missionaries 
had  penetrated  to  the  Upper  Parana,  crossed  it,  and 
were  gathering  the  Indians  by  thousands  into  peace- 
ful villages. 


ARGENTINA 


35 


CHAPTER  I 


THE    ARGENTINE   LAND 


SOUTH  from  where  the  great  mass  of  the  Boliv- 
ian Andes  shoves  a  shoulder  to  the  east,  as  if 
seeking  to  join  the  Brazilian  mountain  system,  and 
from  where  a  low  ridge  stretches  out  to  form  the 
watershed  between  the  Madeira  and  the  eastward- 
flowing  affluents  of  the  Paraguay,  extends  an  im- 
mense flat  plain.  Two  thousand  miles  from  north 
to  south,  and  nearly  five  hundred  miles  in  breadth, 
hardly  a  hillock  rises  above  its  surface  from  the 
foothills  of  the  Andes  westward  to  the  sea.  In  the 
tropical  North  its  surface  is  partly  covered  with 
trees,  but  south  of  the  Chaco  the  only  woodlands 
are  narrow  belts  following  the  streams.  Everywhere 
stretch  the  grassy  plains,  without  an  obstruction  or 
interruption.  The  soil  is  a  fine  alluvium,  full  of  the 
right  chemical  elements,  and  admirably  adapted  to 
agriculture,  wherever  the  rainfall  is  sufficient.  As 
a  pasture-ground  it  is  the  finest  on  the  planet. 
Within  recent  geological  times  this  plain  was  the 
bottom  of  a  great  shallow  gulf  which  received  the 
detritus  washed  down  from  the  Andes  on  the  one 

37 


38  ARGENTINA 

side  and  the  Brazilian  mountains  on  the  other.  The 
gradual  uplifting  of  those  youngest  mountains — 
the  Andes — raised  their  flanks  until  the  adjacent 
floor  of  the  gulf  appeared  dry  land,  a  land  all  ready 
and  prepared  for  human  occupancy.  Nowhere  does 
man  encounter  fewer  obstacles  to  his  freedom  of 
movement  or  find  it  easier  to  procure  his  food  supply 
than  on  the  pampa — the  characteristic  topographical 
feature  of  the  political  division  of  South  America 
known  as  Argentina. 

Skirting  the  ridge  on  the  east  and  draining  the 
vast  slopes  of  the  Brazilian  mountains  of  their  tropi- 
cal rainfall,  is  the  great  river  Parand.  In  latitude 
27°  it  turns  abruptly  to  the  west,  as  if  about  to  cross 
the  pampa,  but  a  hundred  miles  farther  on  it  re- 
sumes its  southward  course.  At  this  last  turn  the 
Parana  flows  into  a  river  which  comes  straight 
down  from  the  north,  draining  the  bed  of  the  old 
inland  sea  that  used  to  divide  South  America.  This 
junction  of  the  Parana  and  the  Paraguay  forms  the 
second  largest  river  in  the  world — a  river  without 
obstructions  to  navigation,  but  which  is  so  immense 
that  it  cannot  be  bridged.  In  latitude  32°  it  turns 
back  to  the  south-east,  soon  receives  the  Uruguay, — 
a  swifter  stream,  that  drains  the  southern  part  of  the 
Atlantic  highlands, — and  then  opens  out  into  the 
great  shallow  estuar>'  known  as  the  River  Plate. 
Between  the  Uruguay  and  the  Parana  is  the  Argent- 
ine Mesopotamia,  — a  flat  region  where  the  low-lying 
plains,  covered  with  luscious  grasses,  intersected  with 
streams,  and  interspersed  with  timber,  gradually  rise 
up-stream  into  the  highlands  of  the  Missions. 


ARGENTINA,  PARAGUAY. 

URUGUAY,  BOLIVIA 

AND    CHILE 


S    s 


40  AkGENTINA 

To  the  west  the  pampa  is  bounded  by  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Andes  and  the  parallel  chains  with  which 
that  great  mountain  system  reinforces  its  flanks. 
At  the  Bolivian  frontier,  the  great  outward-jutting 
shoulder  of  the  Andes  looms  up  among  a  series  of 
subordinate  chains.  South  of  them,  for  a  thousand 
miles,  is  a  belt  of  broken  country  averaging  two 
hundred  miles  in  width.  The  pampa  creeps  up  to 
the  very  foot  of  the  mountain  ranges  and  where  it 
is  watered  blossoms  like  a  garden.  A  quarter  of  the 
population  of  the  Republic  lives  in  the  irrigated 
valleys  of  these  Andean  provinces. 

A  comparatively  narrow,  arid,  belt  stretches  diag- 
onally across  the  South  American  continent  from  the 
Pacific,  in  Northern  Chile,  to  the  Atlantic  in  North- 
ern Patagonia.  Consequently,  from  north  to  south, 
and  from  the  Atlantic  back  toward  the  north-east 
border  of  this  arid  belt,  the  rainfall  of  Argentina  de- 
creases. On  the  north-eastern  frontier  it  is  about  8o 
inches  a  year;  at  Rosario,  40;  at  Cordoba,  30;  at 
Buenos  Aires,  35.  In  the  Andean  provinces  it  de- 
creases from  over  forty,  near  the  Boliv^ian  frontier, 
to  five  or  six  at  San  Juan  in  the  latitude  of  Santa  Fe 
and  Cordoba.  In  the  eastern  part  of  the  great 
pampa  the  rainfall  is  ample  for  cereal  crops ;  in  the 
western  half  the  rains  are  periodical  and  the  region 
is  better  adapted  to  grazing  than  to  agriculture,  and 
there  the  grass  lands  are  intersected  with  tracts  of 
desert  which  grow  larger  towards  the  south.  In  the 
Andes  the  eastern  ranges,  catching  the  rain-laden 
upper  currents,  send  down  ample  water  to  irrigate 
the  valleys  and  adjacent  plains. 


THE  ARGENTINE   LAND  4 1 

The  mesopotamian  region  and  the  country  directly 
south  of  the  Plate  estuary  have,  of  course,  an  ample 
rainfall.  South  of  the  latitude  of  Buenos  Aires  the 
rainfall  of  the  Andean  region,  which  has  grown 
steadily  less  from  the  northern  boundary,  begins 
again  to  increase.  The  eastern  slopes  of  the  mount- 
ains south  for  an  indeterminate  distance  are  well 
watered,  while  the  Patagonian  plains  to  their  east 
are  dry  and  desolate. 

The  climate  varies  from  tropical,  on  the  northern 
frontier,  to  arctic  in  Tierra  del  Fuego.  The  southern 
pampa  and  the  Andean  provinces  are  temperate  or 
subtropical,  and  admirably  adapted  for  habitation 
by  men  of  European  descent.  Tucuman  is  the  hot- 
test of  these  provinces.  There  the  average  temper- 
ature of  the  coldest  month  is  53°;  at  Buenos  Aires 
it  is  50°  ;  at  Cordoba  47°.  The  average  temperatures 
in  these  localities  for  the  whole  year  are,  respect- 
ively, 63°,  61°,  and  63°. 

When  Columbus  landed  in  the  West  Indies,  this 
v^ast  territory  was  occupied  by  two  separate  sets  of 
aborigines.  The  Andean  provinces  were  a  part  of 
the  great  Inca  Empire.  South  as  far  as  Mendoza, 
the  Andean  valleys  were  filled  with  a  vigorous  yet 
peaceful  population  who  had  brought  the  art  of 
irrigation  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  Planta- 
tions of  corn,  mandioc,  and  potatoes  flourished  on 
the  terraced  hillsides  and  in  the  fertile  valleys.  The 
lower  and  hotter  plains  furnished  cotton.  Constant 
communication,  both  commercial  and  governmental, 
was  kept  up  with  the  centre  of  the  Inca  power  in 
Cuzco,  along  roads  that  followed  the  easiest  route.<j 


42  ARGENTINA 

along  the  valleys  and  up  over  the  passes  to  the 
Bolivian  plateau,  and  thence  to  the  central  provinces 
of  the  Empire.  Chile,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Cor- 
dillera, was  a  sister  province,  and  the  passes  over  the 
great  range  were  well  known  and  constantly  used. 
The  population  was  greater  than  it  is  at  the  present 
day.  While  the  political  solidity  of  the  Inca  Empire 
is  doubtless  exaggerated,  it  is  certain  that  the  same 
civilisation  extended  from  Ecuador  to  Mendoza  and 
Santiago  de  Chile,  and  that  the  Cordilleran  region 
was  the  home  of  twenty  millions  of  people,  organised 
into  vigorous,  progressive,  and  expanding  communi- 
ties. 

The  Andean  civilisation  never  showed  any  tend- 
ency to  expand  over  the  tropical  plains  of  the  great 
central  depressions.  The  Incas  themselves  never 
cared  to  penetrate  far  down  the  wooded  and  steam- 
ing slopes  of  the  Andes  lying  directly  to  the  east  of 
their  own  capital.  Their  dependent  states  bordering 
on  the  Argentine  pampa  did  not  cross  the  desert 
plains,  where  irrigating  ditches  could  not  reach.  So 
far  as  we  now  know,  the  Andean  Indians  had  never 
penetrated  to  the  Atlantic. 

East  of  the  pampas,  in  the  hilly  woods  of  Paraguay 
and  Brazil,  tribes  vastly  inferior  in  intelligence,  polit- 
ical organisation,  and  civilisation,  maintained  a  pre- 
carious existence.  Many  of  those  who  belonged  to 
the  great  Guarany  family  lived  in  palisaded  villages 
and  cultivated  the  soil,  but  none  had  advanced  far 
on  the  road  toward  a  reasonably  efficient  social  and 
military  organisation.  The  procuring  of  food  for 
their  daily  wants  was   their  chief  occupation;   the 


THE  ARGENTINE   LAND  43 

tribes  were  too  small  to  make  effective  warfare  on  a 
large  scale ;  there  was  no  prospect  of  any  develop- 
ment into  a  higher  culture.  Certain  tribes,  inferior 
'to  the  Guaranies,  had  spread  from  the  wooded 
regions  over  the  mesopotamian  provinces  and  into 
the  adjacent  pampa,  and  the  districts  on  both  sides 
of  the  estuary,  but  they  never  ventured  far  from  the 
water-supply.  Though  brave  and  intractable,  these 
people  showed  no  real  fighting  capacity  until  after 
white  men  had  taught  them  the  use  of  horses. 
With  this  knowledge,  however,  they  were  able  to 
offer  a  very  effective  resistance,  which  was  not  com- 
pletely overcome  until  twenty  years  ago. 

The  area  of  the  whole  Republic  is  1,212,600  square 
miles.  The  mesopotamian  region  contains  81,000 
square  miles,  being  larger  than  England  and  even 
more  uniformly  fertile.  The  pampa  suitable  for 
grain  production,  including  the  semi-forested  Chaco 
plain  in  the  north,  has  an  area  of  not  less  than  350,- 
000  square  miles.  The  Andean  provinces  contain 
nearly  300,000,  and  Patagonia  316,000.  The  grazing 
pampa  is  partly  included  in  the  Andean  provinces; 
its  boundaries  to  the  south  and  toward  the  Atlantic 
are  not  capable  of  exact  definition,  but  it  includes 
perhaps  half  the  territory  of  the  Republic.  Except 
the  higher  mountains,  and  the  so-called  deserts  of 
the  centre,  the  whole  territory  is  productive. 

The  description  of  the  white  man's  spread  over 
this  immense  country— the  largest,  except  Brazil,  of 
the  South  American  states,  and  of  all  these  the  most 
immediately  and  unquestionably  suitable  for  main- 
taining a  large  population    of  European  blood — is 


44 


ARGENTINA 


tedious  when  told  in  detail.  But  it  is  a  story  fraught 
with  significance  for  the  future  of  the  world.  On 
the  plains  of  Argentina  the  descendants  of  the  Span- 
ish conquerors  hav^e  fought  out  among  themselves 
all  the  perplexing  questions  arising  from  the  adapta- 
tion of  Spanish  absolutism  and  ancient  burgh  law  to 


DOCKS   AT   BUENOS   AIRES. 


a  new  country  and  to  personal  freedom.  After  more 
than  half  a  century  of  civil  war,  constitutional  equi- 
librium has  been  attained.  The  country  ought  to 
be  interesting  where  there  has  grown  up  within  a 
few  decades  the  largest  city  in  the  Southern  Hemi- 
sphere, and  the  largest  Latin  city,  except  Paris,  in 
the  world.    The  growth  of  Buenos  Aires  has  been  as 


THE  ARGENTINE  LAND  45 

dizzying  as  that  of  Chicago,  and  the  world  has  never 
seen  a  more  rapid  and  easy  multiplication  of  wealth 
than  that  which  took  place  in  Argentina  between  the 
years  of  1870  and  1890.  Interesting,  too,  is  Argen- 
tina as  the  scene  of  the  most  extensive  experiment 
in  the  mixture  of  races  now  going  on  anywhere  in 
the  world  except  in  the  United  States.  In  forty 
years  more  than  two  millions  of  immigrants  have 
made  their  homes  in  Argentina.  The  majority  are 
from  Southern  Europe,  but  the  proportion  of  Brit- 
ish, Germans,  French,  Belgians,  and  Swiss  is  a  lifth 
of  the  whole.  Will  the  Northerners  be  assimilated 
and  disappear  in  the  mass  of  Southerners,  or  will 
they  succeed  in  impressing  their  characteristics  on 
the  latter?  Will  a  mixed  race  be  evolved  especially 
suited  to  success  in  subtropical  America?  Will  the 
system  of  administration  painfully  evolved  out  of 
the  old  Spanish  laws  prove  permanently  suited  to  the 
great  industrial  and  commercial  state  that  is  grow- 
ing up  on  the  Argentine  pampa?  Will  the  municipal 
and  bureaucratic  system  prove  adaptable  and  elastic 
enough  to  furnish  a  political  framework  for  the  tre- 
mendous economic  development  which  has  already 
made  such  strides,  but  which  really  has  only  begun? 
Will  the  intellectual  and  social  ideals  of  the  coming 
Argentine  nation  be  military,  bureaucratic,  leisurely, 
or  will  they  be  purely  commercial?  Certain  answers 
to  these  questions  cannot  yet  be  deduced  from  the 
data  furnished  by  the  history  of  Argentina.  Their 
solution,  however,  inheres  in  the  past  of  its  people. 
The  future  of  Argentina  will  have  a  profound  in- 
fluence on  the  rest  of  the  continent.     It   has  the 


46 


ARGENTINA 


largest  territory  except  Brazil,  the  greatest  per  capita 
wealth,  its  population  is  increasing  most  rapidly,  and 
it  has  received  the  greatest  amount  of  foreign  capi- 
tal. Immigration  and  investment  in  the  other  coun- 
tries may  be  expected  soon  to  begin  on  a  large  scale. 
The  experience  of  Argentina  promises  to  prove  in- 
valuable to  all  of  South  America. 


CHAPTER   II 


THE   SPANISH   COLONIAL    SYSTEM 


SPAIN,  as  a  world-power,  reached  her  apogee  in 
the  year  1580,  when  Juan  ,de  Garay  founded 
Buenos  Aires.  In  that  year  Portugal  was  united  to 
the  Spanish  Crown,  and  the  East  Indies  and  Brazil 
doubled  Spain's  colonial  dominions.  But  at  the 
very  same  moment  the  first  symptom  of  her  decline 
appeared.  For  the  first  time  it  was  proved  to  the 
world  that  she  could  not  hold  the  seas  against  hei 
young  rivals  from  Northern  Europe.  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  the  earliest  harbinger  of  Britain's  dominance 
on  the  seas,  appeared  off  the  Plate  on  his  way  to  the 
Pacific.  Spain  had  trusted  that  the  difficulty  of 
threading  the  Straits  of  Magellan  would  protect  the 
South  Sea,  but  Drake  slipped  through  in  a  spell  of 
favourable  weather  and  found  few  Spanish  ships 
which  were  fit  to  fight  him  along  all  the  coast  to 
Panama.  Drake's  wonderful  raid  humbled  Spanish 
pride  where  Spain  was  thought  strongest,  and  en- 
couraged Englishmen  to  fight  with  a  good  heart, 
a  few  years  later,  the  overwhelming  Invincible 
Armada. 

47  .  J 


48  ARGENTINA 

In  1616  a  great  Dutchman,  Schouten,  found  the 
passage  into  the  Pacific  around  Cape  Horn.  This 
discovery  revolutionised  the  navigation  routes  of  the 
world.  Heretofore  the  only  practicable  commercial 
route  to  the  Pacific  had  been  across  the  Atlantic  to 
the  north  shore  of  the  Isthmus.  Nombre  de  Dios 
was  the  metropolis  and  the  market  where  all  the 
goods  for  South  America  were  landed.  Those  in- 
tended to  be  sold  on  the  shore  of  the  Caribbean 
were  sent  along  its  coast,  and  those  intended  for  the 
Pacific  were  carried  overland  to  Panama  to  be 
shipped  on  coasters  down  to  their  destination.  Di- 
rect communication  across  the  Atlantic  to  Buenos 
Aires  was  forbidden  by  the  Spanish  government. 

Schouten 's  epoch-making  discovery  opened  up 
the  way  for  countless  Dutch  and  English  ships  to 
ply  a  contraband  trade  with  the  towns  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  but  did  not  induce  the  Spanish  government 
to  change  its  time-honoured  policy  or  vary  its  trade 
routes.  America  was  treated  as  the  private  pro- 
perty of  the  sovereign  of  Castile,  and  its  commerce 
was  to  be  exploited  for  his  sole  benefit.  No  Span- 
iard was  allowed  to  freight  a  ship  for  the  colonies, 
or  to  buy  a  pound  of  goods  thence,  without  obtain- 
ing a  special  permission  and  paying  for  that  privilege. 
Cadiz  was  the  only  port  in  Spain  from  which  ships 
were  permitted  to  sail  for  America,  and  the  whole 
trade  was  farmed  out  to  a  ring  of  Cadiz  merchants. 
To  protect  this  monopoly  and  to  prevent  the  export 
of  gold  and  silver  were  the  chief  purposes  of  the 
Spanish  colonial  policy.  Every  port  on  the  sea- 
board   of   Spanish    South  America   was   closed  to 


THE   SPANISH   COLONIAL    SYSTEM  49 

trans-oceanic  traffic,  except  Nombre  de  Dios  on  the 
north  shore  of  the  Isthmus.  The  towns  on  the 
Pacific  and  Caribbean  coasts  might  admit  coasting 
vessels  properly  identified  as  coming  from  the  Isth- 
mus and  loaded  with  the  consignments  of  the  Cadiz 
monopolists,  but  the  South  Atlantic  ports  were 
absolutely  closed  so  far  as  law  could  close  them. 
Legally,  no  ships  whatever,  coasters  or  ocean  car- 
riers, could  enter  and  unload  at  Buenos  Aires.  Her 
imports  from  Spain  must  first  go  to  the  Isthmus,  be 
disembarked,  and  then  transported  across  the  mule- 
paths  to  the  Pacific.  Thence  the  goods  had  to  go  in 
coasters  to  Callao,  in  Peru,  where  they  were  again 
disembarked,  transported  up  the  Andean  passes 
along  the  Bolivian  plateau,  and  finally  down  into 
the  Argentine  plain.  Under  such  conditions  in  the 
southern  provinces  European  manufactures  could 
only  be  sold  at  fabulous  prices. 

On  the  other  hand,  such  a  system  made  exports 
impossible,  except  those  of  precious  metals  and 
valuable  drugs.  Hides,  hair,  wool,  agricultural  pro- 
ducts, would  not  stand  the  cost  of  such  long  trans- 
port by  land  and  sea.  The  Spanish  authorities  seem 
deliberately  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
America  should  be  confined  to  producing  gold  and 
silver,  and  they  ruthlessly  strangled  all  other  indus- 
tries. The  Plate  settlements  especially  suffered 
from  the  ruinous  consequences  of  this  system. 
Having  no  mines  of  precious  metals,  they  were 
considered  worthless;  their  interests  were  ignored, 
and  their  complaints  given  no  attention.  The  mere 
existence  of  Buenos  Aires  was  a  source  of  anxiety 


50  ARGENTINA 

to  the  monopolists  and  to  the  Spanish  government. 
They  feared  that  the  Enghsh  or  Dutch  might  take 
possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  Plate  and  thence 
send  expeditions  to  intercept  gold  and  silver  ship- 
ments along  the  overland  routes.  More  immediate 
and  real  was  the  danger  of  the  establishment  of  a 
contraband  trade  which  would  deprive  the  Cadiz 
merchants  of  their  enormous  profits  on  goods  sent 
by  the  Isthmian  route. 

The  home  government  enacted  laws  of  incredible 
severity  in  trying  to  enforce  this  policy.  In  1599 
the  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  was  instructed  to  for- 
bid all  importation  and  exportation  under  penalty  of 
death  and  forfeiture  of  property.  The  shipping  of 
hides  and  horsehair  to  Spain  would  seem  to  be 
harmless  enough,  but  the  Spanish  government 
dreaded  that  gold  and  silver  might  be  smuggled  out 
in  the  packages.  The  government  would  lose  its 
royal  fifth  and  the  precious  metals  might  be  sent  to 
Spain's  rivals  and  enemies  in  Europe,  According 
to  the  economic  ideas  then  accepted,  gold  and  silver 
alone  constituted  wealth,  and  every  ounce  mined  in 
America  which  did  not  reach  Spain's  coffers  was 
considered  irretrievably  lost.  To  prevent  clandes- 
tine shipments  of  the  precious  metals  all  commercial 
intercourse  from  the  coast  to  the  interior  was  made 
illegal,  and  no  goods  whatever  were  permitted  to 
pass  along  the  road  between  Buenos  Aires  and 
Cordoba. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  such  laws  were  un- 
enforciblc.  Even  the  governors  sent  out  for  the 
special  purpose  of  repressing  evasions  recommended 


THE   SPANISH  COLONIAL   SYSTEM  5 1 

modifications.  But  the  Cadiz  monopolists  were 
stubborn  and  their  influence  with  the  Court  was  all- 
powerful.  The  laws  remained  on  the  statute  books 
only  to  be  constantly  disregarded.  No  human 
power  could  keep  people  who  lived  on  the  seashore, 
and  who  had  hides,  wool,  and  horsehair  to  sell,  from 
exchanging  them  for  clothing  and  tools.  Perforce 
Buenos  Aires  became  a  community  of  smugglers. 
English  and  Dutch  ships  surreptitiously  landed  their 
cargoes  of  manufactures  and  took  their  pay  in  hides 
or  in  silver  dollars  that  had  escaped  the  Spanish 
soldiers  on  the  road  down  from  Potosi. 

Rio  and  Santos,  in  Brazil,  became  intermediate 
warehouses  for  the  commerce  of  the  Plate.  The 
officials  in  Buenos  Aires  itself  connived  at  evasions, 
and  the  very  governors  made  great  fortunes  in  part- 
nership with  smugglers.  The  guards  along  the  in- 
terior routes  shut  their  eyes  when  the  mule  trains 
passed,  and  the  goods  of  Flanders  and  France 
reached  Cordoba,  Santiago,  Potosi,  and  even  Lima, 
by  way  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  were  sold  at  prices  with 
which  the  Cadiz  monopolists  could  not  compete. 
Silver  came  surreptitiously  from  Chile  and  Bolivia 
to  pay  for  these  goods.  The  net  result  was  that 
trade  followed  its  natural  and  easiest  route,  although 
there  was  a  fearful  waste  of  energy  in  the  process. 
The  bribe-taking  official,  the  idle  soldier  at  the  road 
station,  the  smuggler  handling  his  goods  in  small 
boats  and  risking  his  life  at  night,  and  the  numerous 
middle  men  absorbed  what  might  have  been  legitim- 
ate profit  to  the  seller  or  to  the  consumer.  Com- 
merce was  half  strangled,  and  with  it  the  industries 


52  ARGENTINA 

of  the  Spanish  colonies.  Civil  government  itself 
suffered,  for  a  community  whose  daily  occupation  it 
was  to  break  one  law  could  not  be  expected  to  have 
much  respect  for  other  laws,  nor  for  the  bribe-taking 
rulers  and  mulish  legislators. 

Nevertheless,  against  these  outrageously  unreason- 
able regulations  the  colonists  for  centuries  made  no 
armed  protest.  They  never  questioned  the  abstract 
right  of  the  Crown  to  forbid  them  to  sell  what  the 
labour  of  their  hands  had  produced.  They  evaded 
but  did  not  contest.  Centuries  of  this  sort  of  thing 
ingrained  into  South  Americans  the  belief  that  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  activity  exists  only  by  suf- 
ferance of  the  government.  The  right  to  sell,  to 
buy,  to  exercise  a  profession  or  a  trade,  depended 
on  the  permission  of  the  government.  The  people 
saw  the  executives  taxing  industry  at  their  pleasure, 
and  suppressing  its  very  beginnings,  until  such  a 
procedure  came  to  seem  a  matter  of  course.  Com- 
mercial spirit  was  constantly  hampered  and  busi- 
ness skill  deprived  of  its  rewards.  The  evil  effects  of 
such  a  policy  can  be  seen  at  every  step  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Spanish-American  countries.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  office-holding  became  the  most 
popular  of  avocations.  The  farmer,  the  stock-raiser, 
and  the  merchant  seemed  to  be  allowed  to  exist  only 
to  pay  the  Spanish  functionary,  instead  of  the  gov- 
ernment's existing  for  the  benefit  of  the  producing 
community.  To  this  day,  service  with  the  govern- 
ment is  more  esteemed  than  commercial  pursuits. 
The  national  ideals  are  only  slowly  becoming  indus- 
trial. 


THE   SPANISH  COLONIAL   SYSTEM  53 

The  King  of  Castile  was  absolute  sovereign  and 
sole  proprietor  of  America.  The  continent  was  an 
appanage  of  his  crown ;  it  did  not  form  an  integral 
part  of  Spain ;  America  and  Spain  were  connected 
solely  through  their  common  allegiance  to  him. 
The  King  governed  America  directly,  assisted  not 
by  his  regular  ministers,  but  by  a  body  of  personal 
advisers  called  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  His  re- 
presentatives in  South  America  were  the  Viceroys 
of  Mexico  and  Peru.  The  latter's  jurisdiction  ex- 
tended over  all  South  America.  Certain  great  terri- 
torial divisions  had  been  made  Captaincies-General, 
and  though  theoretically  subordinate  to  the  Viceroy, 
they  were  in  effect  independent  of  him.  In  the  great 
capital  cities  sat  bodies  of  high  judicial  and  execu- 
tive officials  known  as  Audiencias.  Among  their 
functions  was  that  of  exercising  the  powers  of  the 
Viceroy  during  his  absence.  Charcas,  the  capital  of 
the  mining  region  of  Bolivia,  was  the  seat  of  an 
Audiencia,  and  since  this  city  had  no  resident  Vice- 
roy or  Captain-General  its  Audiencia  was  the  real 
supreme  authority  over  the  Argentine  and  all  the 
territory  east  of  the  Cordillera,  from  Lake  Titicaca 
to  the  Straits. 

Viceroyalties  and  Captaincies-General  were  di- 
vided into  provinces,  each  of  which  was  ruled  by  a 
royal  governor.  When  the  Spaniards  permanently 
occupied  a  new  region  their  first  step  was  to  found 
a  city  and  organise  a  municipal  government.  Like 
the  Romans,  they  knew  no  other  unit  of  political 
structure.  The  governing  body  was  called  a  Ca- 
bildo  and  consisted  of  from  six  to  twelve  members 


54  ARGENTINA 

who  held  office  for  life.  It  conducted  the  ordinary- 
judicial  and  civil  administration  through  officers 
selected  by  itself  and  from  its  own  members. 
Though  the  governor  was  ex-officio  president  of 
this  body,  and  although  its  members  had  bought 
their  places,  they  were  not  mere  figureheads  to 
register  his  will.  Limited  though  their  functions 
were,  they  represented  the  time-honoured  govern- 
mental form  into  which  Spaniards  had  always 
crystallised,  and  the  Creoles  could  not  be  pre- 
vented from  obtaining  a  preponderant  influence  in 
them.  Throughout  colonial  times  they  represented 
local  and  Creole  interests  and  operated  continually 
as  a  check  to  the  aggression  of  the  military  gov- 
ernors. 

The  territorial  jurisdiction  of  a  municipality  was 
usually  ill-defined.  Indeed,  as  a  rule,  in  the  days 
of  settlement  it  extended  in  every  direction  until 
the  claim  of  another  city  was  encountered,  and  the 
terms  "city"  and  "province,"  were,  therefore,  usu- 
ally synonymous.  As  population  grew  denser  new 
cities  were  founded  which  as  municipalities  were 
independent  of  the  capital  town,  but  they  were 
not  necessarily  separated  from  the  original  province. 
The  Cabildo  of  the  capital  of  a  province  bore  a 
peculiar  relation  to  the  royal  governor,  and  often 
tried  to  exercise  a  control  over  the  affairs  of  the 
whole  province,  deeming  themselves  his  associates 
and  the  sharers  of  the  functions  he  exercised,  out- 
side of  its  own  boundaries,  as  well  as  within  them. 
This  assumption  was  favoured  by  the  fact  that  no 
general  body  representing  all  the  cities  of  a  province 


THE   SPANISH  COLONIAL   SYSTEM  55 

existed,  nor  any  constitutional  machinery  by  which 
they  could  act  in  common. 

Spanish-Americans  have  known  only  two  forms  of 
government,  which  have  everywhere  and  always  co- 
existed, though  they  seem  inconsistent.  First,  there 
is  an  executive — the  limits  of  his  power  ill-defined, 
and  often  imposing  his  will  by  force,  in  essence 
arbitrary  and  personal,  and  feared  rather  than  re- 
spected by  the  people ;  secondly,  the  Cabildos  and 
the  modern  deliberative  bodies.  Never  really  elect- 
ive, these  have  nevertheless  performed  many  of  the 
functions  of  bodies  truly  representative;  they  have 
checked  the  arbitrary  executives  and  furnished  a 
basis  for  government  by  discussion.  For  centuries 
the  communities  looked  to  them  for  the  conduct  of 
ordinary  local  governmental  affairs,  and  they  sur- 
vived all  the  storms  of  colonial  and  revolutionary 
times.  On  the  other  hand,  their  importance  in  the 
Spanish  governmental  scheme  has  been  a  most  po- 
tent influence  in  preventing  the  growth  of  local  re- 
presentative government  by  elective  assemblies  and 
officials.  Consequently,  in  national  matters,  freely 
elected  and  truly  representative  assemblies  have 
been  hard  to  obtain.  Legislation  has  been  con- 
trolled by  the  functionaries,  and  there  has  been  no 
general  and  continuous  participation  in  govern- 
mental affairs  by  the  body  of  the  people.  Govern- 
ment by  discussion  and  by  the  common-sense  of  the 
majority  is  difficult  to  establish  among  a  people  ac- 
customed for  centuries  to  seeing  matters  in  the 
hands  of  officials  whom  they  had  no  practical  means 
of  holding  to  responsibility.     The  people  have  rarely 


56  ARGENTINA 

felt  that  the  executive  was  their  own  officer.  He 
was  imposed  on  them  from  above,  he  was  not  amen- 
able to  them,  and  so  far  as  they  were  concerned  he 
ruled  at  his  own  risk.  The  Creoles  were  intensely- 
democratic  in  feeling  and  hard  to  control,  and  when 
they  could  not  tolerate  an  executive  they  turned  him 
out  by  force,  because  no  effective  machinery  existed 
by  which  they  could  turn  him  out  peaceably, 

Though  the  colonial  governor  was  required  to  give 
an  account  of  his  administration  at  the  close  of  his 
term,  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  an  irresponsible  and 
despotic  satrap,  who  taxed,  judged,  and  imprisoned 
people  at  his  pleasure,  restrained  only  by  his  tradi- 
tional respect  for  the  Cabildos  and  by  the  fear  of 
exciting  revolt.  He  commanded  the  armed  forces, 
and  his  power  was,  in  fact,  rather  military  than  civil 
in  origin,  method,  and  application.  The  Cabildos 
selected  the  ordinary  judicial  officers  of  first  resort 
from  among  their  own  members'  list,  but  their 
authority  was  not  very  effective  outside  the  town 
itself.  The  vast  plains  between  the  settlements 
were  largely  governed  patriarchally  by  the  ranch 
owners  and  the  popular  and  capable  gauchos  who 
grew  into  leaders. 

A  taste  for  town  life  soon  became  characteristic 
of  the  Spanish-Americans,  and  wherever  able  they 
crowded  into  the  towns  in  preference  to  staying  on 
their  ranches.  Wealth,  intelligence,  and  political 
activity,  therefore,  came  to  be  concentrated  in  a  few 
foci.  The  system  of  granting  immense  tracts  of 
land  and  dividing  up  the  Indians  as  slaves  among 
the  proprietors  would  apparently  have  a  tendency 


THE    SPANISH  COLONIAL    SYSTEM 


57 


to  produce  a  landed  aristocracy.  But  the  money 
profits  in  colonial  days  were  small,  and  the  great 
landowner  lived  in  the  same  style  as  his  poorer 
neighbour.  Titles  of  nobility  did  not  exist,  and  the 
constitution  of  society  was  decidedly  democratic. 
From  the  very  earliest  times  no  love  was  lost  be- 
tween the  Creoles  and  the  newly  arrived  Spaniards. 
The  governor  was  almost  invariably  a  Spaniard, 
while  the  Cabildo  and  its  officers  were  usually 
Creoles. 


CHAPTER   III 


THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY 


THE  greatest  name  in  the  history  of  Buenos 
Aires  during  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century  is  that  of  Hernandarias  Saavedra.  Of  dis- 
tinguished ancestry  and  pure  Spanish  blood,  he  was 
born  at  Asuncion  in  1561.  A  thorough  Creole,  his 
education  was  confined  to  the  instruction  he  re- 
ceived at  the  convent  of  the  Franciscan  Fathers  in 
his  native  town.  At  fifteen  he  left  school  and  joined 
an  expedition  against  the  Indians  of  the  Andes. 
He  showed  remarkable  capacity  in  fighting  on  the 
plains,  and  his  shrewdness  and  firmness  in  dealing 
with  the  aborigines  were  even  more  valuable  than 
his  courage.  Juan  de  Garay,  the  far-sighted  Basque 
who  founded  Buenos  Aires,  was  the  patron,  model, 
and  hero  of  young  Hernandarias,  who  followed  him 
in  his  great  expedition  over  the  southern  pampa. 
When  Garay,  the  great  Indian  fighter  and  coloniser, 
perished,  his  mantle  fell  on  the  young  man's  shoul- 
ders. In  1588  Hernandarias  distinguished  himself 
in  the  defence  of  Corrientes  against  the  Indians  of 
Chaco  and  was  the  leader  in  the  difificult  campaigns 

58 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  59 

undertaken  in  retaliation.  By  the  time  he  had 
reached  thirty  he  was  the  leading  Creole  in  all  the 
vast  region  from  the  Upper  Paraguay  down  to 
Buenos  Aires,  and  when  the  Spanish  Lieutenant- 
General  of  Asuncion  was  deposed  an  open  Cabildo 
called  him  to  the  vacancy. 

Eleven  years  later  (1602)  the  governor  of  Buenos 
Aires  died,  and  by  common  consent  Hernandarias 
filled  the  office  ad  interim.  This  popular  selection 
was  soon  confirmed  by  royal  commission.  He 
signalised  his  term  of  office  by  an  expedition  down 
the  coast  in  which  he  carried  the  terror  of  the 
white  man's  arms  to  the  limits  of  the  continent, 
and  defeated  the  Indians  wherever  they  resisted. 
Severe  with  the  Indians  when  occasion  demanded, 
he  was  inflexibly  just,  and  as  a  rule  protected  them 
against  the  unlawful  aggressions  of  his  country- 
men. Though  he  did  so  much  to  curb  their  military 
power,  he  left  behind  him  the  name  of  being  their 
best  friend.  He  manumitted  his  own  slaves;  he  op- 
posed the  extension  of  the  system  of  "encomiendas" 
with  its  enslavement  of  wild  Indians,  and  after  his 
first  term  as  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  he  was  named 
official  protector  of  the  aborigines. 

Although  a  Creole,  such  was  his  ability  as  a  mili- 
tary leader,  and  his  shrewdness,  wisdom,  and  firm- 
ness as  a  civil  ruler,  that  the  Spanish  government 
could  not  ignore  him.  Though  a  governor  was  soon 
sent  out  from  Spain  to  replace  him  and  fatten  off 
the  provincials,  Hernandarias  remained  the  most 
powerful  man  in  the  colony.  The  Spanish  authori- 
ties found  that  they  needed  him,  and  he  retained  their 


6o  ARGENTINA 

confidence  as  well  as  that  of  the  Creoles.  He  wisely 
advised  the  latter  against  open  opposition,  believ- 
ing that  continued  peace  must  make  the  colony  so 
strong  that  its  interests  could  not  continue  to  be 
ignored.  In  1610  the  Spanish  government  promul- 
gated laws  forbidding  the  further  enslavement  of 
Indians,  and  Hernandarias  did  much  to  secure  their 
enforcement.  At  the  same  time  he  encouraged  the 
Jesuits  to  extend  their  missions  over  the  upper  val- 
ley of  the  Uruguay,  while  he  secured  the  ranchers 
of  the  western  plains  against  the  encroachments  of 
these  energetic  priests.  The  Creoles  prospered  in 
the  pastoral  pursuits  on  the  pampas,  while  the 
Jesuits  developed  the  more  purely  agricultural 
resources  of  the  wooded  hills  in  the  east.  The  suc- 
cess of  his  policy  soon  became  evident  in  the  in- 
creasing prosperity  of  the  colony.  Three  hundred 
thousand  hides  were  smuggled  out  of  Buenos  Aires 
in  British  ships  alone  in  the  year  1658,  and  by  1630 
the  Jesuit  missions  extended  in  a  broad,  continuous 
belt  along  the  Parana  and  the  Uruguay  from  the 
Tropic  of  Capricorn  to  the  thirtieth  degree.  They 
were  the  rulers  of  a  great  theocratic  republic,  whose 
area  could  not  have  been  less  than  150,000  square 
miles,  and  whose  population  of  something  like  a 
million  was  concentrated  in  thriving  and  peaceful 
villages.  The  Jesuits  systematically  studied  the 
resources  of  the  country  and  taught  their  Indians 
the  cultivation  of  many  crops  suitable  for  export. 
Their  territory  was  commercially  tributary  to  Buenos 
Aires  and  contributed  to  her  growth  and  prosperity. 
When  the   governorship   of  Buenos  Aires  again 


THE    SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  6 1 

became  vacant  in  1615,  by  the  death  of  the  Spanish 
incumbent,  Hernandarias  entered  on  his  own  third 
term,  and  two  years  later,  by  his  advice,  the  rapidly 
growing  province  was  divided.  Paraguay  became  a 
separate  province,  and  the  new  province  of  Buenos 
Aires  included  all  the  territory  east  of  Tucuman  and 
south  and  east  of  Paraguay.  The  three  provinces 
of  Paraguay,  Buenos  Aires,  and  Tucuman  were 
administratively  separate,  and  each  was  directly 
dependent  upon  the  Audiencia  at  Charcas  and  the 
Viceroy  at  Lima.  One  immediate  purpose  of  the 
Spanish  government,  in  erecting  Buenos  Aires  into 
an  independent  province,  was  the  enforcement  of 
the  prohibition  of  trade.  It  was  thought  that  a 
governor  always  on  the  ground,  and  concentrating 
his  attention  on  the  subject,  would  be  efficient  in 
that  direction.  However,  the  result  was  the  oppos- 
ite of  that  expected.  No  governor  of  Buenos  Aires 
could  avoid  making  the  interests  of  his  capital  city 
his  own.  If  honest,  he  was  constantly  pressing  the 
home  government  to  open  the  doors  a  little  and  to 
make  exceptions  of  particular  cases;  if  dishonest,  he 
went  into  partnership  with  the  traders. 

Hernandarias's  career  is  the  one  striking  example 
of  success  by  a  Creole  in  colonial  times.  Though 
the  conquest  and  settlement  of  South  America  was 
accomplished  by  individual  initiative,  the  men  who 
had  done  the  pioneering,  who  had  fought  and  jour- 
neyed and  suffered,  who  had  stained  their  souls  with 
horrible  cruelties,  whose  adventures  and  successes 
would  not  be  credited  if  the  physical  evidences  did 
not  prove  the  truth  of  the  chronicles,  were  displaced 


62  AUGEMTINA 

with  scant  ceremony  to  make  room  for  impoverished 
Court  favourites.  If  the  original  conquerors  were 
thus  badly  treated,  the  Creoles,  unfortunate  to  have 
missed  the  inestimable  advantage  of  being  born  on 
Castilian  soil,  could  not  look  for  favour,  or  equal 
treatment  with  the  office-holders  sent  out  from 
Madrid  year  after  year. 

The  story  of  the  provinces  that  now  form  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Argentine  Republic  has  not  great  in- 
terest during  the  long  years  that  intervene  from  the 
completion  of  the  romantic  conquest  until  the  up- 
rising against  Spanish  authority.  With  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  spirit  of  enterprise  among 
both  Spaniards  and  Creoles  diminished.  Through- 
out the  seventeenth  century  little  progress  was  made 
in  extirpating  the  savage  Indians  even  in  regions  as 
close  to  Buenos  Aires  as  Entre  Rios  and  Uruguay. 
Settlements  were  confined  to  the  right  bank  of  the 
Parana,  and  the  Indians  on  the  left  bank,  protected 
behind  the  wide  flood  of  that  river's  delta,  were  left 
undisturbed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  dry  and  level 
pampas  gave  easy  access  to  the  thriving  towns  of 
the  province  of  Tucuman.  The  Cordoba  range,  the 
greatest  of  the  outworks  of  the  Andes,  rises  from 
the  plain  less  than  two  hundred  miles  from  the  Par- 
ana at  Santa  Fe,  and  only  four  hundred  miles  from 
Buenos  Aires  itself.  The  city  of  Cordoba,  in  the 
fertile  and  well-watered  slope  at  the  foot  of  the 
sierra,  was  the  capital  of  the  province,  the  seat  of  a 
university  from  1613,  and  the  centre  of  Creole  cult- 
ure. The  intercourse  of  the  Buenos  Aireans  with 
their  neighbours  of  the  interior  constantly  increased 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  63 

in  spite  of  the  prohibitions  of  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment, while  Cordoba  and  the  other  towns  of  Tucu- 
man  prospered  with  the  sale  of  pack-mules  to  the 
mines  of  Bolivia. 

In  the  fertile  Andean  valleys  of  Rioja  and  Cata- 
marca  had  lived  since  Inca  times  the  powerful  nation 
of  the  Calchaquies.  Though  they  had  acknowledged 
the  suzerainty  of  the  Cuzco  emperors,  they  were 
ruled  by  their  own  chiefs.  The  first  Spaniards  that 
penetrated  south  from  the  Bolivian  plateau  failed  to 
reduce  them  to  submission.  After  a  bitter  expe- 
rience the  invaders  passed  to  the  west.  For  fifty 
years  this  gallant  people  were  left  undisturbed  in 
their  Andean  fastnesses.  Late  in  the  sixteenth 
century  aggressions  again  began.  The  Indians 
fought  desperately,  but  were  overcome.  Forty 
thousand  were  sold  into  slavery ;  eleven  thousand 
were  exiled  to  Santiago  del  Estero,  to  Santa  Fe, 
and  Buenos  Aires.  The  town  of  Quilmes,  now  one 
of  the  suburbs  of  Buenos  Aires,  was  named  from  the 
mountain  fastness  where  the  Calchaquies  made  their 
last  stand.  Rosario  was  also  settled  by  families  of 
these  brave  Indians  who  were  dragged  across  the 
pampas  by  the  victorious  Spaniards. 

About  1655  a  leader  presented  himself  to  the  rem- 
nants of  this  warlike  people,  claiming  to  be  the 
descendant  and  heir  of  the  ancient  Inca  princes. 
He  was  known  to  the  Indians  as  Huallpa-Inca,  while 
the  Spaniards  called  him  Bohorquez.  A  woman  of 
his  own  race,  by  the  name  of  Colla,  accompanied 
him,  and  she  was  greeted  with  all  the  ceremonious 
honours  that  belonged  to  the  Inca  Queen  according 


64  ARGENTINA 

to  ancient  customs.  Even  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
recognised  the  validity  of  the  claims  of  Bohorquez, 
but  the  governor  regarded  him  only  as  a  menace  to 
Spanish  rule.  He  was  pursued  relentlessly;  his  fol- 
lowers rose  in  revolt ;  the  rebellion  spread  north- 
wards, but  with  the  capture  of  the  Inca  it  collapsed. 
He  was  sent  to  Lima,  tried  for  treason,  and  exe- 
cuted, while  the  Calchaquies  were  placed  under  a 
military  deputy-governor,  subordinate  to  the  gover- 
nor of  Tucuman.  Their  descendants  have  repeatedly 
proved  that  they  came  of  fighting  stock.  They  were 
among  the  best  soldiers  on  the  patriot  side  in  the 
war  of  independence ;  the  province  of  Rioja  never 
submitted  to  Rosas,  it  resisted  Mitre  even  after 
Pavon,  the  last  and  decisive  battle  of  the  civil  wars, 
and  it  was  the  last  province  to  give  its  allegiance  to 
the  confederation. 

The  third  province  into  which  the  whole  territory 
which  is  now  Argentina  was  then  divided,  was  Cuyo, 
— including  the  three  modern  provinces  of  Mendoza, 
San  Juan,  and  San  Luiz.  In  its  early  years,  these 
settlements  did  not  extend  far  from  the  Andes. 
Late  in  the  sixteenth  century  San  Luiz  was  added, 
thus  connecting  the  Spanish  dominions  from  Chile 
across  to  the  borders  of  Cordoba. 

The  complicity  of  the  Spanish  governors  with  the 
contraband  commerce  which  they  were  especially 
charged  to  suppress  is  abundantly  shown  by  contem- 
porary documents.  The  very  first  governor  sent  to 
Buenos  Aires  after  its  erection  into  a  separate  pro- 
vince was  accused  of  agreeing  to  allow  a  Lisbon  mer- 
chant  to  land  a  shipload   of   goods.     He  fled  to 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  65 

sanctuary  among  the  Jesuits  and  there  perished  of 
grief  and  shame.  But  others  were  more  impudent 
and  successful.  Mercado  Villacorta  came  to  his  post 
announcing  that  he  would  so  effectively  enforce  the 
prohibition  that  "not  a  bird  could  pass  with  food  in 
its  beak  from  Buenos  Aires  to  the  interior."  How- 
ever, not  many  months  passed  before  a  Dutch  ship 
applied  for  permission  to  disembark  its  cargo,  pre- 
senting papers  signed  by  a  natural  son  of  King  Philip 
himself.  The  captain  offered  to  turn  over  his  cargo 
in  return  for  a  certain  amount  of  hides,  wool,  silver, 
and  enough  food  to  take  him  back  to  Flanders.  The 
proposition,  on  its  face,  was  very  advantageous,  and 
Villacorta  accepted  it  on  account  of  the  royal  treas- 
ury. He  made  a  faithful  return  of  the  enormous 
profits  accruing  from  the  cargo  of  the  ship  in  quest- 
ion, but  neglected  to  report  that  three  other  Dutch 
ships  were  anchored  just  out  of  sight  and  that  she 
passed  over  to  them  in  the  night  what  had  been 
laden  on  her  the  day  before.  By  chance,  a  royal 
commissioner  was  in  Flanders  and  watched  the  un- 
lading of  all  four  ships.  He  certified  that  three 
million  dollars  worth  of  hides,  wool,  woods,  and 
silver  were  taken  out  of  their  holds.  Villacorta  was 
cashiered  for  the  moment,  but  a  few  years  later  we 
find  him  installed  as  governor  of  Tucuman.  Another 
governor,  Andres  de  Robles,  engaged  so  publicly 
and  impudently  in  fraudulent  transactions  and  cor- 
rupt contracts  that  his  conduct  was  the  text  of  ser- 
mons in  all  the  churches,  but  he  calmly  went  his 
way  and  paid  no  attention  to  the  clerical  boycott 
and    priestly    denunciations.      Imports   by   way   of 


66  ARGENTINA 

Buenos  Aires  increased  so  rapidly  that  soon  the 
Cadiz  monopolists  were  complaining  to  the  Council 
of  the  Indies  that  the  Potosi  shops  were  filled  with 
goods  which  had  come  by  way  of  the  Plate.  Absol- 
ute prohibition  had  manifestly  failed,  and  so  palliat- 
ive measures  were  tried.  Permission  was  given  to 
special  ships  to  sail  from  Cadiz  for  Buenos  Aires, 
carrying  only  enough  merchandise  to  supply  the 
demand  of  Buenos  Aires  itself,  and  giving  bonds  to 
return  to  Cadiz,  so  that  the  return  cargo  could  be 
checked  over  to  see  that  no  silver  was  included. 
Naturally,  this  system  proved  impracticable  and 
only  opened  another  road  to  evasion. 

The  first  severe  blow  to  the  extension  of  the 
Spanish  dominions  over  the  valley  of  the  Parana 
was  struck  by  the  Portuguese  Creoles  of  Sao  Paulo 
in  1632.  Though  King  Philip  of  Spain  was  at  that 
time  also  monarch  of  Portugal  and  Brazil,  the  Paul- 
istas  viewed  with  alarm  and  jealousy  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Jesuits  into  the  regions  lying  to  the 
south-east  of  the  homes  they  had  occupied  for  a 
century.  They  had  had  a  hard  fight  to  keep  the 
Jesuits  from  establishing  villages  in  their  own  neigh- 
bourhood, and  now  they  saw  these  old  enemies 
creeping  up  the  slope  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Upper 
Parana,  shutting  them  off  from  expansion  over  the 
remoter  interior.  The  Paulistas  hated  Spaniards 
and  Jesuits  ;  they  wanted  Indian  slaves  ;  they  recked 
little  of  the  fine-spun  discussions  as  to  the  where- 
abouts of  the  dividing  line  between  the  Castilian 
and  Portuguese  possessions;  their  allegiance  to  the 
Spanish    monarch    sat    lightly    upon    them.      Their 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  67 

homes  were  on  the  headwaters  of  tributaries  of  the 
Parana,  and  their  expeditions  followed  fearlessly 
down  the  streams  and  across  the  plateau  and  burst 
unheralded  on  the  northern  villages  of  the  Jesuits. 
The  poor  Indians  were  defenceless  and  totally  un- 
prepared. The  Jesuits  had  taught  them  the  arts  of 
peace  but  not  of  war;  they  had  no  arms;  their 
spiritual  rulers  had  bethought  themselves  safe  in 
these  remote  plateaux  in  the  middle  of  the  contin- 
ent ;  the  few  thousands  of  Paulistas,  away  over  on 
the  Atlantic  border,  had  not  been  considered  worth 
taking  into  consideration.  Though  few  in  number, 
the  band  of  Portuguese  Creoles  created  immense 
havoc.  The  Jesuit  chroniclers  say  that  three  thou- 
sand Paulistas  killed  and  carried  away  into  captivity 
four  hundred  thousand  Indians  in  a  few  years.  This 
is  certainly  an  exaggeration,  but  we  know  that  all 
the  Jesuit  villages  were  wiped  out  as  far  south  as 
the  Iguassu,  and  that  north  of  that  tributary  the 
Spanish  line  was  pushed  back  to  the  Parana.  The 
Jesuits  protested,  but  their  complaints  availed  no- 
thing. A  few  years  later  Portugal  regained  its  in- 
dependence of  Spain  and  the  work  of  the  Paulistas 
stood.  Spain  lost  her  opportunity  of  securing  the 
whole  Plate  valley,  and  the  way  was  opened  to  the 
Brazilians  to  make  the  interior  of  the  continent 
Portuguese. 

The  Paulistas'  raids  extended  as  far  as  the  Jesuit 
villages  in  Paraguay  and  those  on  the  Upper  Uru- 
guay, but  here  the  priests  managed  to  hold  their 
own.  Portugal's  next  move  toward  getting  posses- 
sion of  all  the  territory  east  of  the  Parana  and  the 


68  ARGENTINA 

Uruguay  was  made  from  the  coast.  In  1680,  an 
expedition  sent  by  the  governor  of  Rio  landed 
directly  opposite  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  and  built 
a  fort — calling  it  Colonia.  This  was  the  first  per- 
manent occupation  of  Uruguayan  soil,  either  by 
Portugal  or  Spain.  Both  nations  claimed  it  under 
differing  interpretations  of  the  Treaty  of  Tordesil- 
las.  Portuguese  historians  claim  that  the  Paulistas 
had  explored  and  asserted  a  right  to  the  region  in 
the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century;  and 
Spanish  authorities  state  that  Jesuits  had  estab- 
lished a  mission  on  the  Lower  Uruguay  about  the 
same  time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Colonia  was  the 
first  permanent  European  settlement  south  of  Santa 
Catharina  and  north  of  the  Plate,  on  or  near  the 
Atlantic  coast. 

The  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  promptly  raised  a 
force,  sailed  across  the  estuary,  and  captured  the 
new  fort.  However,  Spain's  diplomatic  position  in 
Europe  at  the  time  did  not  justify  risking  serious 
trouble  over  a  matter  that  seemed  so  trifling  as  the 
possession  of  a  piece  of  desert  in  South  America. 
The  governor  was  ordered  to  restore  Colonia  to  the 
Portuguese  authorities,  leaving  open  for  subsequent 
discussion  and  determination  the  question  as  to 
which  nation  was  entitled  to  the  territory  on  the 
north  bank.  With  some  interruptions,  Portugal 
remained  in  possession  of  the  port  of  Colonia  for  a 
century,  and  its  existence  was  a  constant  source  of 
annoyance  to  the  Buenos  Aireans.  It  immediately 
became  a  rival  for  the  trade  with  the  interior,  and 
its  merchants  had  the  advantage  of  the  open  aid  of 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  69 

their  own  government.  Their  competitors  at  Buenos 
Aires  across  the  river  were  confessedly  engaged  in 
breaking  the  law  of  their  country.  Exportable 
goods  were  never  safe  from  seizure  until  they  had 
left  Argentine  soil.  Colonia  was  a  convenient  stor- 
ing-place, and  the  river  crafts,  once  within  its  port, 
could  discharge  at  their  leisure,  free  from  anxiety 
that  active  officials  might  threaten  to  enforce  incon- 
venient laws.  Every  time  a  war  broke  out  between 
the  two  countries  in  Europe,  the  exasperated  gov- 
ernor of  Buenos  Aires  would  send  over  an  expedition 
and  capture  the  Portuguese  town.  Three  times  was 
it  taken  and  as  often  restored  on  the  conclusion  of 
peace.  Colonia  in  Portuguese  hands  interfered  with 
the  trade  of  Buenos  Aires  merchants,  and  the  illicit 
gains  of  Spanish  officials,  and  also  destroyed  any 
remnant  of  efficiency  remaining  to  the  prohibition 
of  commerce  across  the  Atlantic.  Back  of  these 
commercial  and  temporary  considerations  w^as  the 
menace  to  the  future  occupancy  by  Spaniards  of  the 
vast  and  fertile  region  extending  from  the  boundaries 
of  Sao  Paulo  to  the  mouth  of  the  Uruguay. 


CHAPTER   IV 


THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 


THE  rapid  decadence  of  Spain  itself  during  the 
reigns  of  the  last  kings  of  the  House  of  Austria 
was  reflected  in  the  colonies.  With  the  accession 
of  the  Bourbons  a  forward  movement  began,  and 
the  colonial  administration  was  roused  into  an  ap- 
pearance of  activity.  Something  was  done  in  the 
direction  of  adopting  a  more  rational  commercial 
policy,  but  it  was  already  too  late.  The  control  of 
trade  had  irrevocably  passed  to  Holland  and  Eng- 
land, and  Spain  could  not  recover  the  business  of 
her  own  colonies.  The  efforts  to  improve  adminis- 
tration were  largely  nullified  by  the  conservatism  of 
her  aristocracy.  It  seemed  that  her  mediaeval  gov- 
ernmental machinery  could  not  be  adaj^ted  to  the 
conditions  created  by  her  active  rivals. 

In  1726,  Montevideo,  the  strategic  key  to  Uruguay 
and  the  north  bank  of  the  Plate,  was  occupied  and 
fortified.  Thereafter,  though  Colonia  still  remained 
in  Portuguese  hands,  it  was  isolated  and  scarcely  ten- 
able. Immediately  the  north  shore  of  the  Uruguay 
began  to  be  settled  by  Spaniards.       Simultaneously 

70 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  JX 

the  ranchers  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Parana,  who 
had  long  been  tempted  by  the  fine  pastures  on 
the  opposite  shore,  finally  ventured  to  secure  a  foot- 
hold in  Entre  Rios,  The  warlike  Charruas  had  kept 
the  white  man  out  of  this  favoured  region  for  two 
centuries,  although  it  was  so  near  to  Buenos  Aires. 
They  did  not  yield  without  a  struggle,  but  they 
were  overcome,  and  those  who  refused  to  submit 
fled  to  the  east  bank  of  the  Uruguay  River — the  pre- 
sent country  of  that  name.  There  they  were  fol- 
lowed by  the  proselyting  Jesuits,  and  it  was  only  a 
question  of  a  few  years  before  the  Argentines  proper 
had  crossed  the  Uruguay  and  were  pasturing  their 
herds  in  the  rolling  champaign  country  that  extends 
from  that  river  to  the  sea.  The  Spanish  advance 
would  have  continued  up  the  coast,  probably  as  far 
as  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Rio  Grande  do  Sul, 
if  the  Portuguese  had  not  in  the  meantime  estab- 
lished a  town  and  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Duck 
Lagoon,  which  is  the  only  port  that  gives  access  to 
the  interior  of  that  most  valuable  region. 

The  increase  of  population,  the  extension  of  the 
occupied  pasture-ground,  and  the  greater  demand 
from  Europe  for  hides  and  wool,  tended  to  multiply 
the  volume  and  value  of  Argentine  exportable  com- 
modities. Northern  Europe  made  marvellous  strides 
in  purchasing  power  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  prices  all  over  the  world  felt  the  impetus.  The 
commercial  policy  of  the  Spanish  government  be- 
came more  lax  and  the  trade  prohibition  fell  into 
contempt  and  disuse.  The  system  of  fleets  of  Span- 
ish ships  under  conv^oy  was  abandoned,  and  single 


72  ARGENTINA 

ships,  mostly  foreign  owned,  and  trusting  to  their 
sailing  qualities  and  equipment  to  escape  capture, 
carried  all  the  trade.  The  trade  of  Buenos  Aires 
grew  and  the  population  of  the  city  increased  in  pro- 
portion. The  exhaustion  of  the  surface  deposits 
and  richer  lodes  of  precious  metals  in  the  mining 
provinces  during  the  eighteenth  century  tended  to 
increase  the  relative  importance  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
her  territory,  even  in  the  mind  of  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment, and  to  turn  a  current  of  immigration  toward 
the  pastoral  c  nd  agricultural  provinces. 

In  1750  the  Spanish  government  made  an  effort  to 
get  rid  of  the  Portuguese  in  Colonia  by  negotiation. 
Portugal  agreed  to  exchange  that  port  for  the  Jesuit 
Missions  which  covered  the  fine  pastures  in  the  west- 
ern half  of  the  present  Brazilian  state  of  Rio  Grande. 
The  helpless  Indians  were  driven  off  or  massacred  in 
spite  of  their  feeble  resistance,  but  as  soon  as  the 
treaty  was  made  public,  Spanish  and  Jesuit  protests 
against  the  abandonment  of  the  territory  were  so 
violent  that  the  agreement  was  formally  annulled  by 
mutual  consent.  The  Portuguese  retained  Colonia, 
and  though  they  gave  up  their  formal  claims  to 
the  Missions  the  military  operations  they  had  so 
promptly  undertaken  against  that  region  had  pretty 
well  rooted  out  Spanish  influence  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  Upper  Uruguay.  It  was  never  re-established, 
and  the  dividing  line  of  1750  is  still  substantially  the 
boundary  between  Spanish  and  Portuguese  South 
America. 

In  1767  Spain  followed  the  example  of  Portu- 
gal and  France  and  expelled  the  Jesuits  from  her 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y  73 

dominions.  For  generations  they  had  been  the  larg- 
est property  holders  in  the  Phite  provinces.  In  the 
larger  towns  popular  education  was  in  their  hands. 
Their  great  schools,  convents,  and  churches  were 
the  finest  edifices  in  the  country.  To  endow  their 
educational  and  religious  work  they  had  accumu- 
lated town  houses,  ranches,  plantations,  mills,  cat- 
tle, ships,  and  even  slaves.  Along  the  banks  of 
the  Upper  Parana  and  Uruguay  they  had  succeeded 
in  dominating  and  absorbing  the  whole  productive 
life  of  the  community.  Their  system  in  the  Indian 
regions  smothered  everything  else ;  no  white  man 
was  allowed  to  visit  their  settlements;  the  Indians 
were  kept  in  absolute  ignorance  of  the  existence  of 
an  external  world  ;  the  Jesuits  required  their  sub- 
jects to  work,  gathering  matte  tea,  cutting  wood, 
cultivating  the  soil,  and  tending  cattle.  However, 
the  Indians  were  kindly  treated  and  were  content 
with  the  easy  life  they  enjoyed  under  the  mild  Jesuit 
rule.  The  Fathers  exported  immense  quantities  of 
hides  and  controlled  the  production  of  matte,  then, 
as  now,  the  favourite  drink  of  Creoles  and  Indians 
in  the  southern  half  of  the  continent.  The  Indians 
received  their  living  and  the  Jesuits  absorbed  the 
surplus.  Their  misfortunes  in  Brazil  had  taught 
them  a  lesson,  and  they  had  tried  to  erect  their  theo- 
cracy in  regions  where  they  need  not  come  into  close 
contact  and  constant  conflict  with  the  lay  settlers. 
For  a  century,  they  had  been  left  undisturbed  in 
South-eastern  Paraguay  and  the  region  between  the 
Upper  Parana  and  Paraguay. 

Neither  their  services  to  civilisation  nor  regard  for 


74  ARGENTINA 

the  interests  of  the  Indians,  nor  their  wealth  and  in- 
fluence, could  avail  anything  against  the  mandate  of 
the  Spanish  monarch,  backed  by  the  Vatican  and 
joyfully  enforced  by  the  colonial  authorities.  The 
Jesuits  who  had  been  employed  in  teaching  in  the 
towns  were  incontinently  imprisoned  and  summarily 
shipped  off  across  the  seas,  while  their  schools  were 
placed  under  the  charge  of  other  ecclesiastics,  and 
their  estates  sold  at  auction.  In  the  missions  re- 
sistance was  anticipated,  but  none  was  made.  The 
Indians,  accustomed  to  look  to  the  Fathers  for 
guidance  in  everything,  were  aghast  when  they  saw 
the  Jesuits  leaving,  and  Spanish  officials  taking  their 
places.  The  new  shepherds  had  not  the  skill  to 
drive  the  flocks  to  the  shearing,  and  could  not  keep 
the  Indians  together  so  as  to  exploit  them  for  the 
benefit  of  the  royal  treasury.  From  their  cruelties 
and  exactions  the  Indians  fled  and  sought  refuge 
among  the  Creole  settlements  of  Entre  Rios  and 
Uruguay,  where  they  constituted  a  valuable  addi- 
tion to  the  population. 

This  transplantation  had  hardly  been  accom- 
plished when  the  Spanish  government  took  a  step 
which  revolutionised  the  administration  of  the 
southern  half  of  the  continent  during  the  remainder 
of  colonial  times,  and  determined  the  future  bound- 
aries of  the  nations  of  South  America.  On  the 
1st  of  August,  1776,  the  Viceroyalty  of  Buenos 
Aires  was  created.  All  the  territory  south  of  Lake 
Titicaca  was  separated  from  the  Viceroyalty  of  Peru, 
and  the  province  of  Cuyo  was  detached  from  the 
Captaincy-General  of  Chile.     The  new  Viceroyalty 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  75 

covered  the  territory  that  has  since  become  the  four 
countries — Bolivia,  Paraguay,  Uruguay,  and  Argen- 
tina. In  colonial  times  it  was  divided  into  eight 
"intendencias,"  of  which  the  northern  four  covered 
the  region  that  is  now  Bolivia  and  was  then  known 
as  Upper  Peru.  The  four  southern  intendencias 
were :  Paraguay ;  Salta,  covering  the  northwestern 
provinces;  Cordoba,  covering  the  central  and  west- 
ern provinces;  and,  finally,  Buenos  Aires,  which, 
besides  the  present  province,  included  Santa  F^,  the 
whole  mesopotamian  region,  Uruguay,  and  the 
Jesuit  country  of  the  Upper  Parana. 

The  creation  of  the  Viceroyalty  was  a  reluctant 
and  tardy  reversal  of  the  colonial  policy  which  had 
steadfastly  refused  to  recognise  in  Buenos  Aires  the 
inevitable  outlet  of  the  region.  Although  the  four 
northern  intendencias  contained  more  than  half  the 
population,  and  Paraguay  probably  half  the  remain- 
der, Buenos  Aires  was  made  the  capital.  Situated 
at  the  mouth  of  the  great  system  of  waterways,  it 
was  the  natural  commercial  centre  of  the  whole 
Viceroyalty.  In  fifty  years  it  had  doubled  in  popu- 
lation, while  the  old  cities  on  the  Bolivian  plateau 
had  remained  stationary.  In  1776  its  population 
did  not  much  exceed  tvv^enty  thousand  souls,  but 
was  rapidly  increasing.  Heretofore,  it  had  been 
rather  a  resort  of  smuggling  merchants  than  a  centre 
of  political  and  social  influence.  Nevertheless,  from 
this  unpromising  root  was  to  spring  the  spreading 
tree  of  South  American  independence.  Buenos 
Aires  is  the  only  capital  that  never  readmitted  the 
Spanish  authorities,  once  they  had  been  expelled, 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  7/ 

and  within  her  walls  San  Martin  drilled  the  nucleus 
of  the  armies  that  drove  the  Spaniards  out  of  Chile 
and  Peru. 

The  alarming  growth  of  the  Portuguese  power 
southward  was  another  potent  reason  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  strong  and  independent  military  juris- 
diction at  the  mouth  of  the  Plate.  The  Spanish 
government  had  at  last  determined  on  vigorous 
measures  to  take  Colonia,  drive  the  Portuguese  from 
Rio  Grande,  and  push  the  Spanish  boundaries  east 
to  the  original  Tordesillas  line.  Pedro  de  Zebal- 
los,  the  first  Viceroy,  sailed  in  November,  1776,  in 
command  of  the  largest  force  which  up  to  that  time 
had  been  sent  to  the  Western  Continent.  Against 
his  twenty-one  thousand  men  and  great  fleet  the 
Portuguese  had  no  force,  military  or  naval,  strong 
enough  to  make  a  serious  resistance. 

The  flourishing  Brazilian  settlement  of  Santa 
Catharina  was  easily  reduced,  and,  leaving  it  garri- 
soned, the  fleet  and  army  went  on  to  the  Plate. 
Colonia  surrendered  without  resistance,  and  the 
army  prepared  to  march  northward  and  drive  the 
Portuguese  from  all  the  coast  as  far  north  as  Santa 
Catharina.  Hardly  was  the  advance  begun,  when 
news  was  received  that  peace  between  Spain  and 
Portugal  had  been  signed.  The  latter  retained 
eastern  Rio  Grande,  and  Santa  Catharina  was  re- 
stored, while  Spain's  title  to  Uruguay  and  the  Mis- 
sions was  recognised. 

Zeballos  returned  to  Buenos  Aires  and  actively 
engaged  in  the  military  and  civil  organisation  of  the 
new  Viceroyalty.      A  fresh  set  of  special  regulations 


78  AkGENTIMA 

had  been  prepared  in  Spain,  creating  an  elaborate 
hierarchy  of  executives.  The  chief  provincial  gov- 
ernors, now  called  "intendentes,"  were  subject  to 
the  orders  of  the  Viceroy  in  military  matters,  but  as 
to  taxation  they  were  directly  responsible  to  the 
Crown.  They  were  entrusted  with  the  paying  of 
governmental  employees,  which  gave  them  great 
influence  with  the  Cabildos  and  functionaries. 

The  intention  of  the  Spanish  government  was 
manifestly  to  enforce  close  relationship  and  greater 
subjection  to  the  central  authority  at  Madrid.  In 
practice,  however,  the  financial  independence  of  the 
provincial- governors  stimulated  the  feeling  of  local 
independence,  increased  the  influence  of  the  Cabil- 
dos, and  paved  the  way  for  the  revolution. 

Since  1765  the  rest  of  South  America  had  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  free  commerce  from  the  mother 
country.  Now,  the  same  rule  was  applied  to  Buenos 
Aires,  and  trade  with  Spain  quickly  attained  respect- 
able dimensions.  In  the  five  years  from  1792  to 
1796  more  than  one  hundred  ships  made  the  voyage 
to  Spain,  and  exports  ran  up  to  five  million  dollars 
annually.  Buenos  Aires  became  the  entrepot  of  the 
wine  and  brandy  of  Cuyo ;  the  poncho  and  hides  of 
Tucuman ;  the  tobacco,  woods,  and  matte  tea  of 
Paraguay;  the  gold  and  silver  of  Upper  Peru;  the 
copper  of  Chile;  and  even  the  sugar,  cacao,  and  rice 
of  Lower  Peru.  By  the  end  of  the  century  the 
population  of  the  city  was  forty  thousand.  Thirty 
thousand  more  lived  in  the  immediate  vicinity; 
Montevideo  had  seven  thousand,  and  the  out- 
lying settlements  of  Uruguay  twenty-five  thousand 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


79 


inhabitants.  The  civilised  population  of  the  Buenos 
Aires  intendencia  was  about  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty thousand,  and  in  population  and  in  wealth  it 
had  become  easily  the  first  among  the  eight  great 
districts  of  the  Viceroyalty. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   BEGINNINGS  OF  THE   REVOLUTION 

TH  E  Viceroyalty  was  a  heterogeneous  mass.  The 
common  subjection  of  its  component  parts  to 
the  Viceroy  gave  it  a  mere  appearance  of  cohesion. 
The  centring  of  the  commercial  currents  in  Buenos 
Aires  did  not  furnish  an  organic  connection  suffic- 
iently strong  to  unite  provinces  and  cities  so  widely 
separated  and  so  different  in  social  and  industrial 
constitution.  Upper  Peru  had  been  a  mining  region, 
and  its  white  population  was  largely  of  a  shifting 
character.  The  bulk  of  the  population  were  In- 
dians, and  the  inhabitants  of  Spanish  blood  were 
still  taskmasters.  Society  was  as  yet  in  unstable 
equilibrium,  and  the  different  elements  had  not 
thoroughly  coalesced.  Paraguay  was  an  isolated 
and  almost  self-sufficing  commonwealth.  It  was  es- 
sentially theocratic,  and  averse  to  receiving  external 
impressions.  In  Salta  and  Cordoba  the  proportion 
of  Indian  blood  was  not  so  preponderant  as  in  Bolivia 
and  Paraguay;  agriculture  was  the  economic  basis; 
the  Creoles  and  Indians  had  largely  amalgamated 
politically  and  socially ;  and,  though  the  people  of 

So 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      8 1 

Spanish  descent  lived  mostly  in  the  towns,  they 
were  in  close  and  friendly  contact  with  the  civilised 
Indians  who  laboured  in  the  irrigated  valleys.  On 
the  wide  pampas  a  new  race  of  men  had  sprung  into 
existence  —  the  gauchos,  whose  business  was  the 
herding  of  cattle,  whose  homes  were  their  saddles, 
and  who  were  as  impatient  of  control  and  as  hard  to 
deprive  of  personal  liberty  as  Arabs  or  Parthians. 
The  proportion  of  white  blood  increased  toward  the 
coast.  Buenos  Aires  was  the  boom  town  of  the 
region  and  the  time.  Its  population  was  recruited 
from  among  the  most  adventurous  and  enterpris- 
ing Spaniards  and  Creoles.  Lima  and  Mexico  were 
centres  of  aristocracy  and  bureaucracy,  while  the 
social  organisation  of  Buenos  Aires  and  its  surround- 
ing territory  was  completly  democratic.  All  were 
equal  in  fact ;  neither  nobles  nor  serfs  existed ;  the 
Viceroy  was  little  more  than  a  new  ofificial  imposed 
by  external  authority,  and  having  no  real  support  in 
the  country  itself.  It  is  not  a  mere  coincidence  that 
the  three  centres — Caracas,  Buenos  Aires,  and  Per- 
nambuco — whence  the  revolutionary  spirit  spread 
over  South  America  should  all  have  been  demo- 
cratic in  social  organisation  and  far  distant  from  the 
old  colonial  capitals.  In  Buenos  Aires,  the  Vice- 
roy himself  could  not  find  a  white  coachman.  An 
Argentine  Creole  would  no  more  serve  in  a  menial 
capacity  than  a  North  American  pioneer;  and  a 
Creole  hated  a  Spaniard  very  much  as  his  contempo- 
rary, the  Scotch-Irish  settler  of  the  Appalachians, 
hated  an  Englishman. 

Not  even  religion    furnished    a    strong    bond    of 

6 


82  AkGENTWA 

union  between  the  widely  dispersed  cities  and  pro- 
vinces of  the  Viceroyalty.  The  priests  had  not  been 
organised  into  a  compact  hierarchy.  They  had  little 
class  feeling;  they  lived  the  life  of  the  Creoles  and 
shared  the  same  prejudices.  Half  the  members  of 
the  first  Congress  after  the  revolution  were  priests, 
but  they  pursued  no  distinctive  policy  of  their  own 
and  offered  no  effective  resistance  to  the  growth  of 
the  power  of  the  military  chiefs. 

Commerce  with  Spain  had  been  authorised,  but 
with  other  nations  it  was  still  unlawful.  The  Cadiz 
monopolists  still  fought  hard  to  preserve  their  privi- 
leges and  to  control  the  Atlantic  trade  as  they  had 
controlled  the  route  by  the  Isthmus.  Great  Britain 
had  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  trafBc  in  negroes  dur- 
ing most  of  the  colonial  period,  but  in  1784  all  foreign 
ships  carrying  slaves  were  allowed  to  enter,  unload, 
and  take  a  return  cargo  of  the  "products  of  the 
country."  The  Cadiz  merchants  contended  that 
hides — then  the  principal  article  of  export — were 
not  "products"  within  the  meaning  of  this  law,  and 
the  Spanish  courts  decided  in  their  favour.  This 
absurd  decision  created  a  storm  of  opposition  in 
Buenos  Aires,  but  even  more  unreasonable  restric- 
tions continued  to  be  insisted  upon.  The  proposi- 
tion to  allow  the  colonies  to  trade  with  one  another 
was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  people  of  Cadiz  and 
their  agents  in  Buenos  Aires. 

Meanwhile,  England's  maritime  victories  in  the 
wars  of  the  French  Revolution  were  sweeping  Span- 
ish commerce  from  the  sea,  and  the  people  of  the 
Plate  saw  themselves  ajiain  about  to  be  shut  off  from 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF   THE  REVOLUTION      83 

the  sea  unless  permission  were  granted  to  ship  in 
foreign  vessels.  Dissatisfaction  grew  apace,  and 
the  prestige  of  the  Viceregal  government  and  the 
influence  of  resident  Spaniards  were  seriously  com- 
promised. At  the  same  time  there  were  fermenting 
among  the  intelligent  and  educated  youth  of  the 
city  the  new  ideas  of  the  North  American  and 
French  revolutions — liberty,  the  rights  of  man,  re- 
presentative government,  and  popular  sovereignty. 
For  generations  England  had  cast  covetous  eyes 
at  South  Africa  and  South  America.  Menaced  with 
exclusion  from  Europe  in  her  giant  conflict  with 
Napoleon,  her  statesmen  determined  to  seize  out- 
side markets  and  possessions.  The  Cape  was  cap- 
tured in  1805,  and  the  next  year  came  the  turn  of 
Argentina.  June  25,  1806,  Admiral  Popham  ap- 
peared in  the  estuary,  and  fifteen  hundred  troops, 
under  the  command  of  General  Beresford,  were  dis- 
embarked a  few  miles  below  Buenos  Aires.  The 
Viceroy  fled  without  making  resistance,  and  on  the 
27th  the  British  flag  was  run  up  on  his  ofiflcial  resi- 
dence. At  first  the  population  appeared  to  acquiesce, 
but  finally  Liniers,  a  French  ofificer  in  the  Spanish 
employ,  gathered  together  at  Montevideo  a  thou- 
sand regulars  and  a  small  amount  of  artillery.  The 
militia  of  Buenos  Aires  soon  proved  themselves  anx- 
ious to  rise  against  the  heretic  strangers.  Liniers 
crossed  the  estuary  and,  advancing  without  opposi- 
tion to  the  neighbourhood  of  Buenos  Aires,  estab- 
lished a  camp  to  which  the  patriotic  innabitants 
flocked.  Within  a  short  time  he  had  armed  an 
overwhelming  number  of  the  citizens,   the  scanty 


84  ARGENTINA 

British  garrison  was  shut  up  in  the  fort,  and  on  the 
1 2th  of  August  the  Argentines  advanced.  After 
some  hard  street  fighting,  the  Engb'sh  were  forced 
to  surrender,  and  the  flags  which  were  captured  that 
day  are  still  exhibited  in  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires 
with  just  pride  as  trophies  of  Argentine  valour. 
The  British  expedition  might  have  been  successful 
had  it  been  more  numerous,  or  had  it  been  promptly 
re-enforced.  If  the  capture  of  Montevideo  had  fol- 
lowed that  of  Buenos  Aires,  the  Argentines  would 
have  had  no  base  of  operations,  and  their  militia 
would  have  remained  without  ammunition  and  ar- 
tillery stores.  It  is  interesting  to  speculate  what 
would  have  been  the  subsequent  history  of  the  tem- 
perate part  of  South  America  in  such  a  case.  It  is 
possible  that  the  Plate  would  have  become  part  of 
the  British  Dominion;  British  immigration  would 
have  followed,  and  the  Plate  might  have  become  the 
greatest  of  British  colonies. 

But  the  opportunity  was  quickly  gone.  The  suc- 
cesses of  1806  so  strongly  aroused  the  spirit  of  na- 
tional and  race  pride  that  thereafter  the  conquest 
of  Argentina  was  a  task  too  great  for  the  small 
armies  which  in  those  days  could  be  transported 
overseas.  No  sooner  was  Beresford  expelled  than 
the  victors  met  in  open  Cabildo,  declared  the  cow- 
ardly Viceroy  suspended  from  office,  and  installed 
the  royal  Audiencia  in  his  place.  A  few  months 
later  the  dreaded  British  re-enforcement  came. 
Four  thousand  men  disembarked  in  eastern  Uruguay, 
and  Montevideo  was  taken  by  assault.  In  Buenos 
Aires  all  was  confusion,  but  the  people  were  resol- 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      85 

ute  to  resist.  Again  an  open  Cabildo  assembled, 
and  Liniers,  the  French  officer  under  whose  leader- 
ship the  victory  of  last  year  had  been  won,  was  given 
supreme  authority.  Military  enthusiasm  spread 
among  all  classes  and  the  people  were  rapidly  en- 
rolled in  volunteer  regiments.  When  General 
Whitelocke  approached  the  city  with  several  thou- 
sand regulars  the  Argentines  confidently  marched 
out  to  meet  him.  In  the  open  they  stood  no  chance, 
and  they  were  compelled  to  fly  back  to  the  shelter 
of  their  narrow  streets  and  stone  houses.  On  the 
5th  of  July,  1807,  the  British  troops,  disdaining  all 
precautions,  marched  into  the  city.  Both  sides  of 
the  narrow  streets  were  lined  wiUi  low,  fireproof 
houses,  whose  flat  roofs  afforded  admirable  vantage- 
ground.  The  Buenos  Aires  men  were  well  supplied 
with  muskets,  and  the  women  and  boys  rained 
down  stones,  bricks,  and  firebrands  on  the  masses 
crowding  the  pavements  below.  The  British  could 
not  retaliate  on  their  enemies,  but  pushed  stub- 
bornly on  toward  the  centre  of  the  city,  dropping  by 
hundreds  on  the  way.  At  the  main  square,  in  front 
of  the  fort,  barricades  had  been  thrown  up,  and 
there  the  English  met  a  reception  which  flesh  and 
blood  could  not  endure.  For  two  days  the  conflict 
raged,  but  finally  the  English  general  was  obliged 
to  give  up  and  ask  for  terms.  He  had  lost  a  fourth 
of  his  force  and  was  allowed  to  withdraw  the  re- 
mainder only  on  agreeing  to  evacuate  Montevideo 
within  two  months. 

The  political  and  commercial  consequences  of  the 
English  invasions  were  vastly  important.      The  mill- 


86  ARGENTINA 

tary  power  of  the  Argentine  Creoles,  hitherto  un- 
suspected, stood  revealed ;  local  pride  had  been 
stimulated ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  invasions 
gave  a  tremendous  impulse  to  foreign  commerce. 
A  fleet  of  English  merchantmen  had  followed  the 
warships.  Untrammelled  commerce  with  the  world 
at  last  became  a  fact.  English  manufactured  goods 
flooded  the  market.  Articles  until  then  beyond 
the  reach  of  all  but  the  wealthiest  now  became 
cheap  enough  for  the  purses  of  the  gauchos.  Bue- 
nos Aires's  trade  was  boomed  by  the  sales  of  im- 
ported goods  to  the  interior  provinces.  Creole 
jealousy  of  Spaniards  rapidly  became  accentuated. 
From  this  time  dates  the  general  use  of  "Goths," 
applied  to  Spaniards  as  a  term  of  opprobrium,  and 
of  "Argentines,"  as  a  designation  for  the  natives 
of  the  Plate.  Recognition  could  no  longer  be  with- 
held from  the  men  who  had  organised  and  com- 
manded victorious  troops, and  henceforth  the  Creoles 
were  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  law,  eligible  to  offices  of 
trust  and  profit.  Even  in  the  Buenos  Aires  Ca- 
bildo,  though  all  the  members  were  native  Span- 
iards, Creole  ideas  predominated. 

Scarcely  had  the  English  retired  from  Montevideo 
when  the  course  of  events  in  Europe  precipitated 
Spanish  South  America  into  confusion.  Charles 
IV.,  the  pusillanimous  King  of  Spain,  allied  him- 
self with  Napoleon  and  aided  the  latter's  aggres- 
sions against  Portugal.  The  Portuguese  monarch 
was  driven  to  Brazil,  the  latter  country  thereby 
gaining  complete  commercial  freedom  and  virtual 
political   independence.      This  naturally  suggested 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF   THE  REVOLUTION     %J 

to  the  Argentines  that  they  were  entitled  to  the 
same  privileges  from  Spain.  Charles  IV.  and 
Godoy,  the  accomplice  of  his  wicked  wife,  who 
really  governed  in  his  name,  were  bitterly  hated  at 
home.  Napoleon's  troops  swarmed  over  the  coun- 
try and  the  monarchy  itself  was  clearly  tottering  to 
its  fall.  Ferdinand,  heir  of  Charles  IV.,  conspired 
against  his  father  and  forced  the  latter  to  resign  in 
his  favour.  The  Spanish  governor  of  Montevideo 
at  once  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  mon- 
arch, an  act  of  insubordination  to  his  titular  super- 
ior, the  Viceroy.  The  latter  was  the  Frenchman, 
Liniers,  who  sympathised  with  the  Creole  party  in 
desiring  to  wait  and  obtain  concessions  for  the  col- 
ony before  recognising  any  of  the  various  claimants. 
A  dispute  over  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Ferdinand 
arose  which  marked  a  definite  rupture  between  the 
Creoles  and  the  old-line  Spiniards — between  those 
who  regarded  the  special  int  rests  of  the  colony  as 
paramount  and  those  who  wished  at  all  hazards  to 
maintain  connection  with  the  mother  country. 

Charles's  abdication  was  only  the  beginning  of 
complications.  He  protested  that  it  had  been  ob- 
tained from  him  by  duress,  and  with  Ferdinand  he 
appealed  to  Napoleon  as  arbiter.  The  latter  forced 
them  both  to  renounce  their  claims  in  favour  of  his 
brother  Joseph.  Everyone  in  South  America  was 
agreed  not  to  recognise  Joseph  Bonaparte  as  King 
of  Spain,  but  there  was  wide  diversity  of  opinion  as 
to  what  affirmative  action  ought  to  be  taken.  Most 
regarded  Ferdinand  as  the  legitimate  king,  but  he 
was  in  a  French  orison.     Charles  still  claimed  the 


88  ARGENTINA 

throne,  while  provisional  governments  were  formed 
in  many  cities  of  Spain  to  resist  the  enthroning  of 
Joseph.  A  central  junta  at  Seville  claimed  to  be 
the  depositary  of  supreme  executive  power  pending 
Ferdinand's  return,  and  to  this  junta  the  Spaniards 
of  the  Plate  gave  their  earnest  and  unhesitating 
allegiance.  But  the  Creoles  could  not  see  their  way 
clear  to  an  unconditional  recognition  of  such  a  self- 
constituted  revolutionary  body.  Few  believed  that 
the  Spanish  patriots  could  withstand  Napoleon's  ar- 
mies. If  Spain  had  submitted  to  Joseph  the  vari- 
ous parts  of  South  America  would  have  become 
independent  without  any  serious  struggle.  The 
"Goths"  in  the  Plate  were  united  in  a  definite  policy 
— loyalty  to  the  only  Spanish  government  that 
was  vindicating  the  nationality.  The  Creoles  could 
agree  on  no  affirmative  programme,  but  all  of  them 
were  determined  that  the  "Goths"  should  not  set 
the  upper  hand.  The  latter  rose  against  Liniers  and 
tried  to  install  a  junta  on  the  model  of  that  at  Se- 
ville. In  view  of  the  menacing  attitude  of  the 
Creole  militia,  the  attempt  was  a  failure,  but  the 
Frenchman  did  not  have  the  resolution  to  maintain 
his  advantage.  The  Seville  junta  finally  named  a 
Viceroy,  and,  though  some  of  the  resolute  spirits 
among  the  militia  leaders  wished  to  resist,  the  ma- 
jority shrank  from  open  defiance  of  the  highest 
existing  Spanish  authority.  On  the  30th  of  July, 
1809,  the  new  Viceroy  took  possession.  He  gained 
popularity  by  his  decree  declaring  free  commerce 
with  all  the  world,  but  his  next  act  opened  the  eyes 
of  the  Creoles  to  the  real  effect  of  the  re-establish- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      89 

ment  of  the  Spanish  system.  He  sent  a  thousand 
men  to  Charcas,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Vice- 
royalty,  to  aid  in  the  bloody  suppression  of  a 
revolutionary  movement  undertaken  by  the  Creole 
inhabitants  of  that  city.  The  story  that  shortly 
came  back  of  wholesale  confiscations  and  executions 
widened  the  breach  between  Spaniards  and  Creoles. 
Meanwhile,  another  crisis  in  Spanish  home  affairs 
was  approaching.  Napoleon's  armies  were  sweeping 
the  Peninsula  from  end  to  end.  In  the  early  months 
of  1810  they  overran  Andalusia,  the  centre  of  resist- 
ance. It  seemed  as  if  the  subjection  of  Spain  was 
about  to  be  completed.  On  the  i8th  of  May,  Vice- 
roy Cisneros  issued  a  proclamation  frankly  revealing 
the  critical  situation  of  the  Spanish  patriot,  and  of 
the  junta  under  whose  commission  he  was  acting. 
All  classes  of  Buenos  Aires  immediately  engaged  in 
feverish  discussions  as  to  what  should  be  done.  The 
Spaniards  wished  to  retain  their  privileged  posi- 
tion ;  the  Creoles  were  determined  to  put  an  end  to 
discrimination  against  themselves.  These  were  the 
real  purposes  of  the  two  parties.  The  Spaniards 
did  not  especially  favour  absolutism,  nor  did  the 
Creoles  in  general  intend  to  renounce  the  sover- 
eignty of  Ferdinand,  should  he  ever  escape  from 
captivity.  Among  the  Creoles  were  many  liberals, 
mostly  young  and  ardent  men,  whom  study  and 
travel  had  convinced  of  the  necessity  for  racial  re- 
form and  colonial  autonomy.  Among  their  leaders 
were  Saavedra,  commander  of  the  most  ef^cient 
militia  regiment;  Vieytes,  at  whose  house  the  meet- 
ings of  the  conspirators  were  held ;  Manuel  Belgrano, 


90  ARGENTINA 

afterwards  the  brains  and  right  arm  of  the  move- 
ment ;  and  two  eloquent  young  lawyers,  Castelli 
and  Paso.  The  active  spirits  conspired  to  depose 
the  Viceroy,  confident  that  this  measure  would  be 
popular  among  all  classes  of  Creoles.  On  the  22nd 
of  May  a  committee  of  popular  chiefs  waited  on  him 
to  demand  his  resignation.  Resistance  was  futile, 
for  he  could  not  rely  on  the  troops.  They  were 
Creoles  and  proud  of  the  fact  that  Argentines  had 
expelled  the  British.  The  office-holders  tried  to 
arrange  a  compromise  by  which  an  open  Cabildo 
should  elect  the  ex-Viceroy  president  of  a  new 
governing  junta.  The  populace  and  the  militia 
would  not  submit,  and  on  the  25th  of  May — now 
celebrated  as  the  anniversary  of  the  establishment 
of  Argentine  liberty — a  great  armed  assembly  met 
in  the  Plaza.  The  Creole  badge  was  blue  and  white 
— then  adopted  as  the  Argentine  colours.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  frankly  revolutionary.  A  junta  was 
named  from  among  the  Creole  leaders,  and  the 
Buenos  Aires  Cabildo  obediently  proclaimed  this 
body  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Viceroyalty. 
There  was  no  pretence  of  consulting  the  other  pro- 
vinces. Spanish  constitutional  law  provided  no 
machinery  through  which  they  could  be  heard,  and 
the  capital  assumed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  right 
of  governing  the  dependencies. 

The  events  of  the  25th  of  May  were  not  intended 
to  sever  relations  between  Spain  and  Buenos  Aires. 
The  acts  of  the  new  government  ran  in  the  name  of 
Ferdinand  VII.,  King  of  Castile  and  Leon.  An  able 
and  ambitious  coterie  of  young  men  came  to  the 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      9 1 

front,  whose  achievements  in  war,  administration, 
and  diplomacy  were  to  change  the  face  of  South  Am- 
erica. In  the  neighbouring  cities  there  were  no  spon- 
taneous uprisings  against  the  Spanish  governors,  but 
the  Buenos  Aires  patriots  lost  no  time  in  sending 
out  armies  to  spread  their  liberal  and  anti-Spanish 
doctrines.  The  first  movement  was  towards  the  old 
university  town  of  Cordoba.  Here  ex-Viceroy 
Liniers  had  managed  to  get  a  few  troops  together, 
but  not  enough  to  make  effective  resistance.  At 
the  first  encounter  they  were  all  captured,  and  the 
Buenos  Aires  junta  immediately  ordered  the  execu- 
tion of  the  captured  officers  and  of  the  anti-Creole 
chiefs.  This  barbarous  act  is  a  fair  sample  of  the 
horrible  bloodthirstiness  of  the  war  between  Creoles 
and  Spanish  sympathisers.  As  a  rule,  both  sides 
slew  their  prisoners,  and  the  combats  were,  there- 
fore, incredibly  bloody  for  the  numbers  engaged. 

The  Buenos  Airean  army  continued  its  trium- 
phal march  through  the  provinces  of  Cordoba  and 
Salta  up  to  the  Bolivian  mountains.  The  Creole 
townspeople  reorganised  the  municipal  governments 
on  an  anti-Spanish  basis,  and  the  army  increased 
like  a  rolling  snowball.  Not  until  it  had  reached  the 
high  lands  of  Bolivia  was  serious  resistance  en- 
countered. On  the  7th  of  November  the  patriots 
gained  the  battle  of  Suipacha.  The  Creoles  of 
Bolivia  rose,  and  the  Buenos  Aireans  penetrated 
rapidly  as  far  as  the  boundaries  of  the  Viceroyalty. 
Meanwhile,  Manuel  Belgrano  had  led  a  small  ex- 
pedition to  Paraguay.  However,  the  inhabitants  of 
that  isolated  region  showed  no  disposition  to  join 


92  ARGENTINA 

the  Buenos  Aireans  in  their  revolutionary  move- 
ment. The  Spanish  governor  allowed  Belgrano  to 
advance  nearly  t6  Asuncion,  but  there  his  little 
army  was  overpowered  and  forced  to  surrender  on 
honourable  terms.  Montevideo's  capture  seemed 
essential  to  the  safety  of  Buenos  Aires  itself.  Span- 
ish ships  under  the  orders  of  its  governor  blockaded 
the  river  and  constantly  menaced  an  attack  on  the 
patriot  capital.  Early  in  1811,  Artigas  with  a  band 
of  gauchos  from  Entre  Rios  crossed  the  Uruguay 
and  overran  the  country  up  to  the  walls  of  the  fort- 
ress, defeating  the  Spaniards  in  the  battle  of  Piedras. 
Re-enforcements  came  from  Buenos  Aires,  and  a 
siege  of  Montevideo  was  begun. 

At  this  juncture  news  came  of  a  great  disaster  in 
the  north.  The  Argentines  had  at  first  been  joined 
by  Bolivian  patriots,  but  the  latter  were  jealous; 
and  the  former,  bred  on  the  plains,  could  not  well 
endure  the  high  altitude,  suffering  in  health  and  ef- 
ficiency. The  Viceroy  of  Peru  rapidly  recruited  a 
considerable  army  among  the  sturdy  and  obedient 
Indians  of  the  high  Peruvian  plateau.  On  the  20th 
of  June,  181 1,  the  patriot  army  was  attacked  at 
Huaqui,  near  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Titicaca,  and 
was  virtually  annihilated.  Bolivia  was  lost  to  the 
patriots  and  Spanish  authority  was  re-established  as 
far  down  as  the  Argentine  plains. 

This  great  defeat  completely  changed  the  attitude 
of  affairs.  The  Argentines  evacuated  Uruguay,  and 
the  Spanish  colonial  authorities  everywhere  took  the 
offensive.  The  heroic  resistance  which  the  Spanish 
people  were  now  making  to  the  army  of  Napoleon's 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      93 

marshals  encouraged  the  Viceroy  and  governor  to 
believe  that  Ferdinand  would  soon  again  be  seated 
on  the  throne  of  his  fathers.  Spanish  ships  domin- 
ated the  delta  of  the  Parana,  and  the  Spanish  troops 
from  Montevideo  descended  at  pleasure  on  the  banks 
of  the  Plate  or  its  tributaries.  The  Spanish  resid- 
ents at  Buenos  Aires  plotted  against  the  junta,  but 
their  conspiracy  was  betrayed,  and  in  the  middle  of 
18 1 2  their  chiefs,  to  the  number  of  thirty-eight, 
mostly  wealthy  merchants,  were  arrested  and  gar- 
rotted. The  situation  of  the  revolutionary  gov- 
ernment was  so  desperate  that  it  is  not  hard  to 
understand  why  the  junta  ruthlessly  repressed  all 
signs  of  disaffection.  Victorious  Spanish  armies 
threatened  them  from  both  Bolivia  and  Montevideo, 
and  fire  in  the  rear  would  have  been  fatal. 

In  this  crisis  of  their  fate,  Manuel  Belgrano,  the 
great  leader  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Creoles,  came  to 
the  front.  A  native  of  the  city,  he  had  been  edu- 
cated in  Spain,  where  he  had  imbibed  liberal  prin- 
ciples. On  his  return  he  threw  himself  with  all  the 
prestige  of  his  learning,  talents,  and  wealth  on  the 
side  of  the  Creoles.  His  faith  in  the  triumph  of 
liberal  principles  was  unalterable,  and  he  was  a  more 
radical  advocate  of  independence  than  most  of  his 
associates.  Though  without  military  training,  and 
though  his  expeditions  in  Paraguay  and  Uruguay 
had  not  been  successful,  his  prestige  and  his  un- 
wavering confidence  in  the  patriot  cause  pointed 
him  out  as  naturally  the  fittest  leader.  Again  he 
was  entrusted  with  the  command,  and  went  north 
td  Tucuman,  where  the  disheartened  fragments  of 


94  ARGENTINA 

the  patriot  army  were  fearfully  waiting  for  the  de- 
scent of  the  victorious  Spaniards.  The  inhabitants 
of  Jujuy  and  Salta  had  been  driven  from  their  homes, 
and  for  the  first  time  gaucho  horsemen  appeared  as 
the  principal  element  of  an  Argentine  army.  The 
junta  ordered  Belgrano  to  retire,  so  as  to  protect 
Buenos  Aires,  but  he  disobeyed  and  stuck  to  Tucu- 
man  and  let  the  Spaniards  get  between  him  and  the 
capital.  With  the  country  up  in  arms,  and  the  ex- 
asperated gauchos  harassing  his  march,  the  Spanish 
general  did  not  dare  leave  Belgrano's  army  behind 
him.  The  Spanish  army  turned  back  to  Tucuman 
to  finish  with  the  mass  of  militia  there  before  re- 
suming its  march  on  the  capital.  To  the  surprise 
of  South  America,  the  result  was  a  decisive  patriot 
victory.  The  gaucho  cavalry,  armed  with  knives 
and  bolos,  mounted  on  fleet  little  horses,  carrying 
no  baggage,  and  living  on  the  cattle  they  killed  at 
the  end  of  each  day's  march,  followed  the  fleeing 
Spaniards  up  into  the  mountains  and  inflicted  enor- 
mous losses.  This  victory  gave  the  Argentines  for 
another  year  assurance  against  invasion  by  land,  and 
Buenos  Aires  remained  a  focus  whence  anti-Spanish 
influences  could  spread  over  the  rest  of  South  Amer- 
ica. The  patriots  again  invaded  Uruguay,  shut  up 
the  Spaniards  within  the  walls  of  Montevideo,  and 
prepared  once  more  to  carry  the  war  into  Bolivia. 

All  this  while  the  government  at  Buenos  Aires 
was  involved  in  internal  quarrels.  The  first  junta 
soon  expelled  its  fiercest,  strongest,  and  most  active 
spirit, — Moreno, ^who  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
man  of    the    period    who   foresaw  the  necessity  of 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF    THE  REVOLUTION      95 

establishing  a  federative  form  of  government.     With 
the   disaster   of    Huaqui   the   necessity    for   a   more 


MANUEL    BELGRANO. 
[From  an  oil  painting  ] 


compact  executive  became  urgent.     A  triumvirate 
assumed  the  direction  of  affairs.     Its  policy  was  at 


96  ARGENTINA 

once  despotic  and  feeble  and  satisfied  neither  fed- 
eralists, adv^anced  liberals,  nor  the  military  element. 
The  latter  was  becoming  daily  more  predominant. 
A  radical  republican  society  called  the  "Lautaro," 
composed  largely  of  young  officers,  was  organised 
and  became  virtually  a  ruling  oligarchy.  San  Martin 
and  Alvear  arrived  from  Europe,  and  the  prestige 
which  they  had  acquired  on  European  battle-fields 
at  once  secured  for  them  prominent  positions. 
When  the  news  of  the  victory  of  Tucuman  reached 
the  city  the  military  classes  revolted,  deposed  the 
old  triumvirate,  and  installed  a  new  one.  This 
revolution  marked  the  final  triumph  of  the  senti- 
ment of  independence.  The  new  government  was 
active  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Belgrano  was  re- 
enforced;  San  Martin  was  encouraged  in  his  chosen 
work  of  forming  the  nucleus  of  a  disciplined  army, 
fit  for  offensive  warfare;  the  worn-out  pretence  of 
employing  Ferdinand's  name  on  public  documents 
was  dropped  ;  the  inquisition,  the  use  of  torture,  and 
titles  of  nobility  were  abolished.  The  Argentine 
revolution  had  finally  assumed  a  military  and  repub- 
lican character ;  independence  was  clearly  henceforth 
"ts  end  and  purpose. 


CHAPTER  VI 


COMPLETION   OF   THE    WAR   OF   INDEPENDENCE 


BELGRANO  followed  up  his  victory  at  Tucuman 
by  another  invasion  of  the  Bolivian  plateau. 
Even  to  a  trained  general  and  a  regular  army  such  a 
campaign  would  have  been  difficult.  The  defective 
organisation  of  his  hastily  gathered  militia,  his  own 
unfamiliarity  with  the  art  of  war,  and  the  fact  that 
he  was  opposed  by  a  clever  commander  whose  army 
was  better  drilled  and  better  adapted  to  operations 
in  that  high  altitude,  all  conspired  to  leave  the  result 
in  no  doubt.  October  i,  1813,  he  was  badly  de- 
feated at  Vilapugio,  and  six  weeks  later  his  army 
was  nearly  destroyed  at  Ayohuma.  With  the  rem- 
nant he  fled  south  to  Argentine  territory  and  was 
replaced  in  his  command  by  San  Martin. 

The  advent  of  this  consummate  general  and  single- 
minded  patriot  revolutionised  the  character  of  the 
military  operations.  Unlike  his  predecessors  and 
colleagues,  he  did  not  concern  himself  with  political 
ambitions.  He  had  but  one  purpose — to  drive  the 
Spaniards  from  .South  America;  he  knew  but  one 
way  of  achieving  it — to  whip  them  on  the  field  of 

97 


98  ARGENTINA 

Wttle.  He  had  none  of  the  brilliantly  attractive 
qualities,  none  of  the  eloquence  or  charm  of  most 
South  American  leaders  ;  he  had  a  horror  of  display, 
and  made  but  one  speech  in  all  his  life. 

By  sheer  force  of  will  and  attention  to  detail,  he 
organised  an  efficient  regular  army.  The  victories 
that  followed  were  as  much  due  to  his  painstaking 
care  and  foresight  as  to  his  brilliant  strategical  com- 
binations and  admirable  tactical  dispositions.  Be- 
cause he  thought  another  could  finish  his  work  better 
than  himself  he  voluntarily  resigned  supreme  power 
on  the  very  eve  of  the  campaign  which  expelled  the 
last  Spaniard  from  South  America,  and,  disdaining 
to  offer  an  explanation,  went  into  life-long  exile. 
So  modest  was  he  that  his  name  and  services  well- 
nigh  fell  into  oblivion.  That  he  is  now  recognised 
as  the  saviour  of  South  American  liberty  is  due  as 
much  to  the  literary  labours  of  the  greatest  of 
Argentine  historians,  Bartolome  Mitre,  as  to  the 
spontaneous  opinion  of  his  countrymen  during  the 
first  decades  after  his  retirement. 

General  San  Martin  was  born  on  the  25th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1778,  in  a  little  town  which  had  been  one  of 
the  Jesuit  missions  far  up  the  Uruguay  River.  His 
mother  was  a  Creole  and  his  father  a  Spanish  officer, 
who  destined  his  son  to  his  own  profession.  When 
a  child  of  only  eight,  he  was  taken  to  the  mother 
country  and  educated  in  the  best  military  schools  of 
Spain.  At  an  early  age  he  entered  the  army  and 
served  in  all  the  many  wars  in  which  Spain  engaged 
after  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution.  He 
saw  much    active  service  and   became  a  thorough 


COMPLETION  OF    WAR    OF  INDEPENDENCE      99 

master  of  his  profession.  He  imbibed  liberal  ideas 
and  joined  a  secret  society  pledged  to  the  work  of 
establishing  a  republic    in   Spain   and   independent 


GENERAL    SAN    MARTIN. 
[From  a  steel  engraving.] 

governments  in  her  colonies.  When  the  Spanish 
people  rose  against  the  French  conquests,  San  Mar- 
tin threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  conflict  on 
the  side  of  the  patriots,  and  distinguished  himself 
in  the  battles  that  opened  the  way  to  the  recovery 
of  Madrid.      He  was  promoted  to  a  lieutenant-colo- 


lOO  ARGENTINA 

nelcy,  but  the  next  year  he  resigned  his  com- 
mission to  return  to  his  native  land  to  aid  her  in  her 
fight  for  independence.  By  a  curious  coincidence 
the  ship  that  bore  the  South  American  who  achieved 
the  independence  of  his  country  was  called  the 
George  Canning,  after  the  European  who,  thirteen 
years  later,  did  most  to  secure  the  independence  of 
South  America  from  external  attack.  He  landed 
in  Buenos  Aires  in  March,  1812.  At  that  moment 
the  anti-Spanish  revolution  seemed  everywhere  to 
be  on  the  point  of  suffocation.  Bolivia  and  Uru- 
guay were  lost;  the  reaction  was  gaining  ground  in 
Venezuela ;  Chile  was  menaced  by  an  army  from 
Lima  and  shortly  fell  back  into  Spanish  hands; 
Peru  was  steady  for  the  old  system.  Only  in 
Argentina  and  New  Granada  were  the  fires  of  insur- 
rection still  burning,  and  between  them  intervened 
Peru,  the  stronghold  of  Spanish  power  in  South 
America — a  citadel  impregnable  behind  mountains, 
deserts,  and  the  ocean.  The  War  of  Independence 
could  only  succeed  by  aggressive  campaigns  which 
must  be  conducted  through  difificult  country  and 
over  the  whole  continent,  and  against  forces  superior 
in  both  numbers  and  equipment. 

San  Martin's  first  step  was  to  organise  and  drill 
some  good  regiments  in  Buenos  Aires.  He  selected 
the  finest  physical  and  moral  specimens  of  youth 
that  the  province  afforded  and  subjected  them  to  a 
rigid  discipline.  After  his  ruthless  pruning  only  the 
born  soldiers  remained,  and  this  select  corps  fur- 
nished generals  and  ofBcers  for  the  wars  that  fol- 
lowed.     On  succeeding  Belgrano  in  command  of  the 


COMPLETION  OF    WAR    OF  INDEPENDENCE      10 1 

army  of  the  north,  San  Martin  saw  at  once  that 
all  attempts  to  conquer  Peru  by  an  advance  through 
Bolivia  were  foredoomed  to  failure.  A  campaign 
over  a  mountainous  plateau,  with  the  Spaniards  in 
possession  of  the  strategic  points,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants divided  in  their  sympathies,  would  be  suicidal. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  attack  and  defeat  the  Span- 
ish  forces  in  Peru  itself  was  absolutely  necessary. 
The  three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  of  Argen- 
tina, distracted  by  intestine  warfare,  could  not  hope 
indefinitely  to  resist  the  Spanish  power,  backed  by 
secure  possession  of  the  rest  of  the  continent.  De- 
cisive victories  were  necessary  to  encourage  the 
partisans  of  independence  in  Chile,  Peru,  Bolivia, 
and  Ecuador. 

San  Martin's  solution  of  the  problem  was  to  or- 
ganise an  arm}'  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Andes; 
to  invade  Chile;  to  drive  the  Spaniards  thence,  and 
make  that  country  the  base  of  further  operations  ;  to 
improvise  a  fleet  and  with  it  gain  command  of  the 
Pacific;  and,  finally,  to  attack  Peru  from  the  coast. 
The  scheme  seemed  complicated,  but  San  Martin 
was  one  of  those  rare  geniuses  born  with  a  capacity 
for  taking  infinite  pains,  and  his  pertinacity  was  in- 
defatigable. He  foresaw  and  provided  against  every 
contingency  and  carried  his  plan  to  a  triumphant 
conclusion.  The  story  of  the  liberation  of  South 
America  within  the  succeeding  eight  years  might  be 
completely  told  in  the  form  of  two  biographies — San 
Martin's  and  Bolivar's. 

Trusting  the  defence  of  the  Bolivian  frontier  to 
a  few  line  soldiers  and  the  gauchos  of  Salta,  San 


UNIV:  :rc<yu 


102  ARGENTINA 

Martin  solicited  and  obtained  an  appointment  as 
Governor  of  Cuyo.  This  province  was  directly  east 
of  the  populous  central  part  of  Chile,  and  was  the 
refuge  of  the  patriot  Chileans  who  had  been  com- 
pelled to  flee  into  exile  after  quarrels  among  them- 
selves had  delivered  their  country  to  the  Spaniards. 
His  authority  was  purely  military  and  derived  only 
from  the  dictum  of  the  revolutionary  government  at 
Buenos  Aires,  but  San  Martin  was  not  a  man 
to  hesitate  on  account  of  scruples  over  constitu- 
tional questions.  He  laid  the  province  under  con- 
tribution and  started  to  create  an  army  capable  of 
crossing  the  Andes  and  coping  with  the  Spanish 
regulars  in  Chile.  The  inhabitants  of  Cuyo  were 
determinedly  anti-Spanish,  brave,  enduring,  and 
enthusiastic.  It  was  a  good  recruiting  ground  in 
itself;  the  Chilean  exiles  were  numerous  and  all 
anxious  to  join  in  an  effort  to  redeem  their  country. 
The  government  at  Buenos  Aires  sent  him  a  valu- 
able addition  in  a  corps  of  manumitted  negro  slaves, 
but  his  nucleus  was  the  regiments  which  he  himself 
had  drilled  at  Buenos  Aires.  Though  civil  wars 
went  on  in  the  coast  provinces,  he  was  not  to  be 
diverted  from  his  purpose.  He  kept  aloof  from 
them,  and  for  three  years  laboured  steadily,  build- 
ing his  great  war  machine — recruiting,  drilling,  in- 
structing officers,  taxing  his  province,  gathering 
provisions,  building  portable  bridges,  making  pow- 
der,  casting  guns,  organising  his  transport  and  com- 
missariat. 

Meanwhile,  Alvear,  his  old  colleague  in  the  Span- 
ish army,  had  assumed  the  leading  position  in  the 


COMPLETION   OF    WAR   OF  INDEPENDENCE     IO3 

oligarchy  that  ruled  at  Buenos  Aires.  He  sup- 
pressed the  triumvirate  and  placed  his  relative, 
Posadas,  at  the  head  of  the  government.  The  pa- 
triot armies  were  besieging  Montevideo  from  the 
land  side,  but  it  was  not  until  a  fighting  demon  of 
an  Irish  merchant  captain,  William  Brown,  had  been 
placed  in  command  of  a  few  ships  which  the  Buenos 
Aireans  had  gathered,  that  there  was  any  hope 
of  reducing  the  place.  This  remarkable  man  was 
nearly  as  important  a  factor  as  San  Martin  himself 
in  the  war  against  Spain.  With  incredible  audacity 
he  attacked  the  Spanish  ships  wherever  he  found 
them.  Numbers  and  odds  made  no  difference,  and 
he  was  never  so  dangerous  as  just  after  an  apparent 
reverse.  His  victory  of  the  14th  of  June  put  the 
Spanish  fleet  out  of  commission  ;  the  reduction  of 
Montevideo  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  and  the 
destruction  of  the  Spanish  sea  power  on  the  Allan- 
tic  side  made  San  Martin's  campaign  on  the  Pacific 
coast  possible. 

Civil  wars  broke  out  between  the  Buenos  Aires 
oligarchy  and  local  military  chiefs  in  the  gaucho 
provinces  and  soon  hurled  Posadas  from  power.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Alvear,  but  the  commanders  of 
the  armies  refused  to  recognise  the  latter's  authority 
and  an  insurrection  in  Buenos  Aires  itself  drove  him, 
too,  into  exile.  One  military  dictator  succeeded 
another,  while  the  provinces  more  and  more  ignored 
the  Buenos  Aires  pretensions  to  hegemony.  The 
frail  fabric  of  the  confederation  fast  crumbled  into 
fragments.  With  the  end  of  the  Napoleonic  wars 
re-enforcements  began  to  arrive  from  Spain,  and  the 


I04  ARGENTINA 

royal  arms  were  again  victorious  and  threatened  to 
wipe  out  the  distracted  RepubHc.  Rondeau,  one 
of  the  generals  who  had  helped  depose  Posadas  and 
Alvear,  had  been  rewarded  with  command  of  the 
army  of  the  north.  Disregarding  the  experience  of 
his  predecessors,  he  made  the  third  great  effort  to 
conquer  Bolivia  and  strike  at  the  heart  of  Spanish 
power  in  Peru  by  the  overland  route.  His  cam- 
paign ended  with  the  crushing  defeat  at  Sipe-Sipe. 
Considerable  Spanish  forces  followed  him  down  into 
the  Argentine  plains,  but,  as  San  Martin  had  pre- 
dicted, the  gaucho  cavalry  under  Gucmes  were  able 
to  keep  back  their  advance. 

|3elgrano  and  Rivadavia  had  been  sent  to  Spain 
in  1 813  to  try  to  arrange  terms  on  the  basis  of 
autonomy,  or  the  making  of  Buenos  Aires  a  sepa- 
rate kingdom  under  some  member  of  the  Spanish 
family.  They  were  informed  that  nothing  except 
unconditional  submission  would  be  accepted,  and 
they  were  then  ordered  to  leave  Madrid.  Scheme 
after  scheme  was  presented  in  Buenos  Aires,  dis- 
cussed, and  abandoned.  Belgrano  wanted  to  make 
a  descendant  of  the  Incas  emperor  of  South  Amer- 
ica. Others  wished  to  offer  submission  to  Great 
Britain  in  return  for  a  protectorate.  The  English 
government  rejected  the  overtures.  A  more  popu- 
lar idea  was  to  elect  a  monarch  from  the  Portuguese 
Braganza  family,  then  reigning  in  Brazil.  The  only 
definite  result  of  all  these  confused  negotiations  was 
a  formal  declaration  of  independence  made  on  the 
9th  of  July,  1 816,  by  a  Congress  at  which  most  of 
the  provinces  were  represented,  and  which  met  in 


COMPLETION  OF    WAR   OF  INDEPENDENCE     105 

the  city  of  Tucuman.  Many  of  the  members  had  no 
hope  of  being  able  to  enforce  such  a  declaration. 
However,  it  cleared  the  way  for  obtaining  foreign 
help,  and  negotiations  were  continued  with  a  view  to 
inducing  some  European  prince  to  accept  the  throne. 

Artigas,  the  independent  military  chieftain  of 
Uruguay  and  Entre  Rios,  attacked  in  181 3  the  Mis- 
sions to  the  left  of  Upper  Uruguay  which  the  Rio 
Grande  Brazilians  had  seized  twelve  years  before. 
He  was  defeated  by  the  troops  of  John  V^I.,  who 
followed  him  into  Uruguay  proper  and  in  18 16  cap- 
tured Montevideo.  Though  the  Buenos  Aireans 
had  been  compelled  to  concede  Uruguay's  inde- 
pendence, this  movement  excited  among  them  an 
intense  jealousy  of  the  Portuguese.  The  scheme 
for  a  Braganza  monarch  at  once  became  unpopular 
and  impracticable. 

The  taciturn  general  in  Cuyo  was,  however,  pre- 
paring a  thunderbolt  that  would  clear  the  Argentine 
sky  of  all  these  clouds  except  that  most  portentous 
of  all  —  civil  war.  After  three  years  of  incessant 
preparation,  San  Martin  believed  that  his  army  was 
ready  to  undertake  the  great  campaign.  Though  it 
numbered  only  four  thousand  men,  it  was  the  most 
efficient  body  of  troops  that  ever  gathered  on  South 
.American  soil.  Among  the  Argentine  contingent 
were  the  picked  youth  of  Buenos  Aires  and  the  pro- 
vinces —  reckless,  enthusiastic  youths  whose  ambi- 
tion, patriotism,  or  love  of  adventure  made  them 
willing  to  follow  anywhere  San  Martin  might  dare 
to  lead.  Not  inferior  to  their  white  comrades  were 
the  manumitted  negroes.     The  cruelest  charges  and 


Io6  ARGENTINA 

the  heaviest  losses  fell  to  their  lot  and  few  of  them 
ever  returned  over  the  Andes.  The  Chilean  exiles 
were  picked  men  — -  those  who  preferred  death  to 
submission,  or  who  had  offended  so  deeply  that 
their  only  hope  of  seeing  their  homes  was  to  return 
sword  in  hand.  This  force  had  been  drilled  and  in- 
structed in  all  the  art  of  war  as  practised  during  the 
Napoleonic  era  by  San  Martin  himself,  a  veteran 
soldier  of  the  great  European  campaigns — one  who 
had  fought  with  Wellington  and  against  Massena 
and  Soult.  He  was  indefatigable  in  attending  to 
details,  and  he  seems  to  have  foreseen  everything. 
The  last  months  were  spent  in  preparing  rations  of 
parched  corn  and  dried  beef;  in  gathering  mules  for 
mountain  transportation,  and  in  making  sledges  to 
be  used  on  the  slopes  which  were  too  steep  for  can- 
non on  wheels.  The  most  careful  calculations  were 
made  of  the  distances  to  be  traversed ;  every  route 
was  surveyed ;  spies  were  in  every  pass ;  the  Span- 
iards were  kept  in  uncertainty  as  to  which  of  the 
numerous  passes  along  hundreds  of  miles  of  frontier 
would  be  used  for  the  attack.  San  Martin's  real 
intentions  were  not  revealed  by  him  even  to  the 
members  of  his  staff  until  the  very  eve  of  the  ad- 
vance. 

When  summer  came  in  1817,  and  all  the  passes 
were  freed  from  snow,  he  was  ready.  In  the  middle 
of  January  he  broke  camp  at  Mendoza  and  divided 
his  army  into  two  divisions.  Directly  to  the  west 
was  the  Uspallata  Pass,  then  as  now  the  usual  route 
between  western  Argentina  and  central  Chile.  Its 
Chilean  outlet  opens  into  the  plain  of  Aconcagua, 


COMPLETION  OF    WAR   OF  INDEPENDENCE     107 

which  is  north  of  Santiago  and  only  separated  from 
that  capital  by  one  transverse  spur  of  the  Andes. 
OfT  to  the  north  was  the  more  difificult  pass  of  Patos, 
its  eastern  entrance  also  easily  accessible  from  Men- 
doza,  though  by  a  longer  detour,  and  opening  at  its 
other  end  into  the  same  valley  of  Aconcagua.  The 
smaller  of  the  two  divisions  was  to  advance  over 
the  Uspallata  Pass,  so  timing  its  movements  as 
to  reach  the  open  ground  of  the  Aconcagua  val- 
ley at  the  same  time  as  the  larger  division,  which, 
under  San  Martin  himself,  went  to  the  north  around 
the  Patos  route.  The  Spaniards  had  a  guard  at  the 
summit  of  the  Uspallata  Pass,  but  the  advance 
troops  of  the  Argentines  charged  it.  Before  re- 
enforcements  could  come  up,  the  division  was  over 
and  advancing  confidently  down  the  canon  on  the 
Chilean  side.  Had  the  Spaniards  sent  up  a  force 
sufificient  to  prevent  the  Uspallata  division  from  de- 
bouching on  to  the  Aconcagua  plain  it  would  have 
been  caught  in  a  trap.  The  second  division  could 
have  bottled  it  up  from  below  by  leaving  a  small 
body  at  the  mouth  of  the  canon.  But  before  the 
Spanish  commander  had  made  up  his  mind  what  to 
do,  news  came  that  another  army  was  rapidly  com- 
ing down  the  valley  leading  into  the  Aconcagua 
valley  from  the  north.  Disconcerted  by  this  attack 
from  an  unexpected  direction,  the  Spanish  com- 
mander hastened  off  with  an  inadequate  force  to  repel 
it.  He  did  not  reach  a  defensible  point  in  time;  his 
vanguard  was  defeated  and  he  retreated  along  the 
highroad  to  Santiago,  leaving  San  Martin  to  re- 
unite his  two  divisions  at  his  leisure  in  the  broad 


I08  ARGENTINA 

Aconcagua  plain.  Though  the  army  had  crossed  the 
Andes  ov^cr  two  of  the  loftiest  and  steepest  passes 
in  the  world,  so  admirably  had  all  dispositions  been 
made  that  hardly  a  stop  was  necessary  to  refit  and 
recruit.  Artillery  and  cavalry,  as  well  as  infantry, 
were  ready  within  four  days  after  reaching  the  Chil- 
ean side  to  take  up  the  pursuit  of  the  Spaniards. 

Marco,  the  Spanish  governor,  had  not  had  suffi- 
cient time  to  concentrate  his  scattered  regiments 
since  the  first  news  had  come  that  San  Martin  was 
coming  in  force  by  the  northern  passes.  Of  his  five 
thousand  men  only  two  thousand  were  able  to  get 
between^San  Martin's  advance  and  Santiago.  The 
Argentine  general  was  sure  of  having  the  largest 
numbers  at  the  point  of  conflict,  but  the  Spanish 
troops  were  veterans  of  the  Peninsula  and  were  com- 
manded by  a  skilful  and  resolute  general.  He  con- 
centrated his  force  in  a  strong  position  in  a  valley 
on  the  south  side  of  the  transverse  range  that  separ- 
ates Santiago  from  the  Aconcagua  v^alley.  He  had 
hoped  to  make  his  stand  at  the  top  of  the  pass,  there 
four  thousand  feet  high,  but  San  Martin  had  been 
too  quick  for  him.  However,  the  position  was  ad- 
mirable for  a  stubborn  defence.  The  highroad  to 
Santiago  descended  from  the  pass  down  a  narrow 
valley,  which,  just  in  front  of  the  Spanish  position, 
opened  into  a  larger  valley  running  at  right  angles. 
The  artillery  of  the  Spaniards  commanded  the  nar- 
row mouth  of  the  upper  valley,  and  on  a  side  hill 
there  was  room  to  deploy  the  infantrj'-  and  cavalry. 
The  Argentine  troops  would  be  enfiladed  in  the  close 
gut  before  they  could  form  in  line  of  battle.     San 


Completion  of  war  of  independence    109. 

Martin  employed  the  tactics  of  the  Persians  at  Ther- 
mopylae. There  was  an  abandoned  road  running 
over  the  summit  a  little  to  the  west  of  the  travelled 
route  and  debouching  into  the  same  valley  a  little 
below  the  Spanish  position.  Through  this  O'Hig- 
gins,  the  chief  of  San  Martin's  Chilean  allies,  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  February  12th,  started 
with  eighteen  hundred  men.  By  eleven  he  had 
reached  the  main  valley  and  turned  up  it  to  attack 
the  Spaniards  on  their  left  flank.  His  first  assault, 
made  without  waiting  for  the  other  division  to  come 
down  in  front,  was  repulsed.  San  Martin,  sitting  on 
his  war-horse  on  the  heights  above,  galloped  down 
the  slope,  leaving  orders  to  hasten  the  descent  of 
the  main  body.  As  he  reached  the  lower  ground 
and  joined  the  Chileans,  he  saw  the  head  of  his 
main  column  appear  through  the  mouth  of  the  pass. 
O'Higgins  again  attacked,  and  the  Spaniards,  taken 
in  flank  and  with  their  centre  assailed  in  echelon  by 
the  Argentine  squadrons  and  battalions,  were  at  a 
hopeless  disadvantage.  The  position  of  their  in- 
fantry was  carried  by  the  bayonet,  while  the  patriot 
cavalry  charged  the  artillery  and  sabred  the  men  at 
their  guns.  The  infantry  were  the  flower  of  the 
Spanish  regulars;  they  formed  a  square  and  for  a 
time  held  their  stand.  Finally,  surrounded  on 
three  sides,  their  artillery  gone,  and  fighting  against 
double  their  number,  they  broke  and  retreated  over 
the  broken  ground  in  their  rear.  Less  than  half 
escaped  and  a  quarter  were  killed  on  the  field  and  in^ 
the  pursuit.  The  patriots  lost  only  twelve  killed  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty  wounded. 


no  ARGENTINA 

Though  the  numbers  engaged  were  insignificant, 
and  though  the  victory  was  easily  won,  the  battle 
of  Chacabuco  was  decisive  in  the  struggle  between 
Spain  and  her  revolted  subjects  in  the  southern 
colonies.  Since  the  outbreak  of  1810  the  revolu- 
tionary cause  had  been  losing  not  alone  territory 
but  morale,  conviction,  and  self-confidence.  Span- 
ish authority  seemed  certain  finally  to  be  completely 
re-established,  perhaps  by  a  compromise  and  con- 
cession of  autonomy,  but  still  on  a  basis  gratifying 
to  the  pride  of  the  mother  country.  The  day  be- 
fore San  Martin  started  on  his  march  over  the 
Andes,  Chile  was  quietly  submissive;  Uruguay  was 
occupied  by  Portuguese  troops;  Argentina  was  a 
mere  loose  aggregation  of  discordant  and  warring 
provinces,  whose  most  intelligent  statesmen  had 
nearly  given  up  hope  of  peace  and  autonomy,  ex- 
cept by  foreign  aid  or  submission  to  some  alien 
monarch.  But  the  day  after  Chacabuco  the  Span- 
ish governor  was  flying  from  Santiago  to  the  coast; 
Chile  had  become,  and  has  remained,  independent. 
In  Argentina  there  was  no  more  talk  of  Portuguese 
princes,  of  British  protectorates,  of  compromise  with 
Spain.  The  declaration  of  Tucuman  had  become  a 
reality.  There  was  much  more  hard  fighting  still  to 
be  done,  and  time  after  time  during  the  next  seven 
years  the  final  result  seemed  to  tremble  in  the 
balance,  but  hope  and  national  spirit  had  been  so 
aroused  in  South  America  that  defeat  was  never 
irremediable. 

The  rest  of  San  Martin's  military  career  belongs 
rather  to  the  history  of  Chile  and  Peru  than  to  that 


COMPLETION   OF    WAR   OF  INDEPENDENCE     III 

of  Argentina.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  estab- 
lished his  friend  O'Higgins  as  dictator  of  Chile,  thus 
assuring  her  co-operation  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  against  Peru.  Spanish  successes  in  Chile  and 
civil  war  in  Argentina  delayed  for  years  his  over- 
matching the  Spanish  naval  power  on  the  Pacific. 
Without  command  of  the  sea  he  would  have  had  to 
march  his  army  up  a  desert  coast  between  the  Cor- 
dillera and  the  ocean — an  undertaking  almost  im- 
possible. The  help  of  the  Buenos  Aires  fleet  was 
essential  and  so  was  the  aid  of  the  Argentine  treas- 
ury in  buying  more  ships  and  paying  foreign  seamen. 
His  friends  at  Buenos  Aires  were  struggling  for  their 
lives  against  their  rivals  for  supreme  power.  To  San 
Martin's  demand  for  assistance  they  responded  by 
begging  him  first  to  use  his  army  to  crush  the  rebel- 
lion. That  he  refused  them  in  their  hour  of  bitter 
need  has  been  pointed  out  as  a  blot  upon  his  fame, 
but  his  resolution  was  Spartan.  Not  even  the  con- 
siderations of  gratitude  to  personal  friends  diverted 
him  from  his  great  purpose.  He  had  that  element 
of  supremely  great  achievement — steadfastness  to 
adhere  to  a  purpose  once  conceived  that  nothing 
could  shake.  Puerreyedon  might  be  driven  into 
exile;  the  warring  factions  might  tear  Argentina 
into  fragments,  and  jealous  Cochrane  might  unjustly 
accuse  him ;  the  ambitious  and  selfish  Bolivar  might 
regard  him  only  as  an  obstacle  to  his  own  suprem- 
acy; none  of  these  things  could  change  his  course 
or  alter  his  devotion  to  the  one  great  purpose  of  his 
life. 

In  1820  he  finally  started  up  the  coast,  and  in  four 


112  ARGENTINA 

months,  without  a  pitched  battle,  he  had  rendered 
the  Spanish  position  on  the  coast  of  Peru  untenable. 
He  met  Bolivar  at  Guayaquil,  and  the  personal  in- 
terview between  the  liberators  of  the  northern  and 
southern  halves  of  South  America  was  the  end  of 
San  Martin's  public  career.  He  went  to  it  with  the 
purpose  of  arranging  a  joint  campaign  to  drive  the 
Spanish  from  their  last  stronghold,  the  highlands  of 
Peru.  But  Bolivar  did  not  see  his  own  way  clear  to 
co-operation.  San  Martin  explained  his  predicament 
to  no  one ;  he  uttered  no  word  of  complaint  or  re- 
gret ;  he  simply  gave  up  the  command  of  the  army 
which  he  had  led  for  seven  years  and  resigned  the 
Dictatorship  df  Peru.  There  was  no  place  for  him 
in  distracted  Argentina  except  as  a  leader  in  the 
civil  wars — a  role  he  disdained.  He  went  into  ex- 
ile without  saying  a  word  as  to  the  reasons  for  his 
action.  Rather  than  precipitate  a  division  between 
the  patriots  before  the  last  Spaniard  had  been  driven 
from  South  America,  he  submitted  in  silence  to  the 
reproach  of  cowardice.  Rather  than  jeopard  inde- 
pendence he  sacrificed  home,  money,  honours,  even 
reputation  itself.  The  history  of  the  world  records 
few  examples  of  finer  civic  virtue. 

The  rest  of  his  life  he  spent  poverty-stricken  in 
Paris.  Only  once  he  tried  to  return  to  his  native 
country.  At  Montevideo  he  heard  that  Buenos 
Aires  was  in  the  throes  of  another  revolution  and 
that  his  presence  might  be  misconstrued.  Without 
a  word,  he  took  the  next  ship  back  to  Europe.  For 
many  years  his  struggles  against  poverty  and  ill- 
health  were  pathetic.     It  was  the  generosity  of  a 


a:   = 


'-    S 


114  ARGENTINA 

Spaniard,  and  not  a  fellow-countryman,  that  relieved 
the  last  days  of  his  life.  But  throughout  those 
weary  thirty  years  he  never  wavered  in  his  devotion 
to  South  America.  His  last  utterance  about  public 
affairs  was  a  vehement  laudation  of  Rosas — ^^tyrant 
though  he  thought  him  —  because  the  latter  had 
defied  France  and  England  when  they  disregarded 
Argentina's  rights  as  a  sovereign  member  of  the 
family  of  nations. 

Reading  was  the  only  resource  left  to  lighten  his 
old  age,  and  his  last  months  were  embittered  by 
the  approach  of  blindness.  His  heart  began  to  be 
affected,  symptoms  of  an  aneurism  appeared,  and 
he  went  to  Boulogne  to  take  the  sea  air.  Standing 
one  day  on  the  beach  he  felt  the  awful  shock  of  pain 
that  announced  his  approaching  end.  "Gasping and 
raising  his  hand  to  his  heart,  he  turned  with  a  touch- 
ing smile  to  that  daughter  who  ever  followed  him  like 
a  latter-day  Antigone,  and  said,  'C'cst  lorage  qui 
mene  an  port.'  On  the  17th  of  August,  1850,  being 
seventy-two  years  of  age,  he  expired  in  the  arms  of 
his  beloved  daughter.  Chile  and  Argentina  have 
raised  him  statues;  Peru  has  decreed  a  monument 
to  his  memory.  The  Argentine  nation,  at  last  one 
and  united  as  he  had  ever  desired,  has  brought  back 
his  sacred  remains  and  celebiated  his  apotheosis. 
To-day  his  tomb  may  be  seen  in  the  metropolitan 
cathedral,  bearing  witness  for  Argentina  to  his  just 
distinction  as  the  greatest  of  all  her  men  of  action." 


CHAPTER   VII 


THE   ERA   OF   CIVIL   WARS 


FOR  half  a  century,  from  1812  to  1862,  the  story 
of  Argentina  is  one  of  ahnost  continual  civil 
wars,  of  disturbances,  and  armed  revolutions  affect- 
ing every  part  of  the  Republic.  But  through  the 
confused  records  of  this  half-century  there  runs 
the  thread  of  a  steady  tendency  and  purpose.  The 
nation  was  instinctively  seeking  to  establish  an 
equilibrium  between  its  centripetal  and  centrifugal 
forces,  between  the  spirit  of  local  autonomy  and  the 
necessity  for  union.  At  the  same  time,  the  irre- 
pressible conflict  between  military  and  civil  prin- 
ciples of  government  was  fought  out.  Argentina 
emerged  strong  and  united,  while  the  provinces  re- 
tained the  right  of  local  self-government,  and  the 
military  classes  were  relegated  to  their  proper  sub- 
ordinate position  as  servants  of  the  civil  and  indus- 
trial interests  of  the  community.  When  studied  in 
detail  the  story  of  the  civil  wars  is  confusing  and 
tedious :  it  is  my  purpose  to  omit  all  that  does  not 
bear  on  the  final  rational  and  beneficent  result. 
At  the  outset  of  the  revolution  against  Spain,  the 
"5 


in  6  ARGENTINA 

jbligarchy  of  liberals  who  ruled  Buenos  Aires  assumed 
the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  Viceroyalty.  They 
regarded  themselves  as  successors  to  the  power  of 
the  Viceroy  himself,  and  attempted  to  rule  the  out- 
lying provinces  with  no  more  regard  for  the  latter's 
interests  than  if  they  had  been  delegates  of  an  ab- 
solute monarch.  Though  the  people  of  the  city  of 
Buenos  Aires  often  quarrelled  as  to  what  individual 
should  exercise  the  supreme  power,  they  were  united 
in  insisting  that  the  capital  should  continue  to  enjoy 
the  privileges  and  exclusive  commercial  rights  with 
which  the  Spanish  system  had  endowed  it.  Hardly 
had  the  revolution  begun  when  the  districts  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Buenos  Aires  showed  symptoms 
of  revolt  against  the  central  authorities.  The  cities 
of  Santa  Fe,  Concepcion,  and  Corrientes,  each  with 
its  dependent  territory,  aspired  to  the  status  of 
independent  provinces.  Military  chieftains,  called 
"caudillos,"  organised  the  gauchos,  who  were  excel- 
lent cavalry  ready-made  to  their  hands,  and  defied 
the  Buenos  Aires  oligarchy.  Jose  Artigas,  a  fierce 
chieftain  of  the  plains  on  the  Lower  Uruguay, 
gathered  about  him  a  considerable  army  from  among 
the  gauchos  east  of  the  Parana,  and  did  more  than 
the  Buenos  Aireans  themselves  to  shut  up  the  Span- 
iards in  the  fortress  of  Montevideo.  He  refused  to 
accept  the  concessions  offered  by  the  Buenos  Aires 
oligarchy,  and  a  desperate  civil  war  broke  out. 
Buenos  Aires  successively  lost  Uruguay,  Entre 
Rios,  Corrientes,  and  Santa  Fe.  The  fighting  was 
bloody  and  these  districts  were  all  terribly  devas- 
^tated.     Cordoba  and  the  Andean  provinces  also  re- 


THE  ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  l\J 

fused  to  recognise  the  validity  of  orders  emanating 
from  Buenos  Aires.  By  the  year  1818  all  the  pro- 
vinces were  practically  independent  of  Buenos  Aires, 
though  the  latter  abated  not  a  jot  of  her  pretensions 
to  hegemony,  and  continued  to  send  troops  against 
the  various  caudillos.  Her  armies  obeyed  their  own 
generals  rather  than  the  orders  of  the  central  govern- 
ment. In  desperation  the  oligarchy  finally  peremp- 
torily ordered  San  Martin  and  Belgrano  to  bring 
down  their  armies  from  the  western  and  northern 
frontiers  and  suppress  the  independent  chiefs.  San 
Martin  refused  to  obey,  but  the  imaginative,  warm- 
hearted Belgrano  was  not  made  of  the  same  sterling 
stuff.  He  managed  to  lead  the  army  of  the  north 
as  far  as  the  province  of  Cordoba,  but  at  Arequito 
the  troops,  at  the  instigation  of  ambitious  officers, 
revolted  and  scattered.  Many  joined  the  caudillos, 
and  on  the  ist  of  February  the  provincials  completely 
overthrew  the  Buenos  Aires  militia  in  the  decisive 
battle  of  Cepeda. 

This  ended  for  a  time  the  capital's  pretensions  to 
hegemony.  Decentralisation  went  on  apace.  Cuyo 
dissolved  into  the  three  provinces  of  Mendoza,  San 
Luiz,  and  San  Juan;  the  old  intendencia  of  Salta 
became  four  new  provinces, — Santiago  del  Estero, 
Tucuman,  Catamarca,  and  Salta, — to  which  a  fifth 
was  added  when  the  city  of  Jujuy  erected  itself  into 
a  separate  jurisdiction  in  1834.  From  the  Cordoba 
of  colonial  times  Rioja  split  off,  while  the  intendencia 
of  Buenos  Aires  had  been  divided  into  four  great 
provinces,  Santa  Fe,  Corrientes,  Entre  Rios,  and 
Buenos  Aires,   besides  the   independent   nation   of 


Il8  ARGENTINA 

Uruguay.  Each  of  these  provinces  practically  cor- 
responded with  the  leading  city  and  its  dependent 
territory,  and  the  Cabildo  of  each  municipality  was 
the  basis  of  new  local  government. 

This  process  was  spontaneous,  and  the  provinces 
then  formed  have  ever  since  been  the  units  of  the 
Argentine  confederation.  To  many  intelligent  pa- 
triots of  the  time,  however,  decentralisation  seemed 
to  be  only  a  sure  sign  of  swiftly  approaching 
anarchy.  Power  fell  more  and  more  into  the  hands 
of  the  military  leaders,  and  war  became  almost  the 
normal  condition  of  the  country.  During  the  four 
years  from  1820  to  1824,  there  was  no  material 
change  in  the  position  of  the  contending  forces. 
The  provinces  much  desired  to  make  a  confederation 
of  which  Buenos  Aires  should  be  an  equal  member, 
but  the  latter  refused  and  only  waited  for  an  oppor- 
tunity in  order  to  renew  her  pretensions  to  hege- 
mony. 

Two  opposing  tendencies  were,  however,  at  work 
which  soon  created  two  parties  within  the  walls  of 
Buenos  Aires  itself.  Commercial  interests  had  suf- 
fered so  severely  in  the  civil  wars,  and  communi- 
cations were  so  uncertain  and  so  burdened  with 
arbitrary  exactions  by  the  provincials,  that  the  pro- 
perty-holding classes  began  to  press  hard  upon  the 
office-holders  of  the  oligarchy  with  demands  for  an 
accommodation  and  some  sort  of  a  union  with  the 
provinces.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  federalist 
party,  which  naturally  found  efficient  support  among 
the  cattle-herding  inhabitants  on  the  great  pampas 
of  the  province  of  Buenos  Aires. 


THE  ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  I  I9 

On  the  other  hand,  the  unitarians  were  becoming 
more  compact,  more  determined,  and  more  definite 
in  their  purposes.  Rivadavia,  the  greatest  construc- 
tive statesman  of  the  era,  undertook  the  reform  of 
the  laws  and  the  administration.  He  created  the 
University  of  Buenos  Aires;  founded  hospitals  and 
asylums ;  introduced  ecclesiastical  and  military  re- 
form ;  bettered  the  land  laws,  and  infused  into  the 
legislation  a  modern  spirit.  The  improved  tone 
of  political  thought  tended  to  stimulate  a  more 
general  and  rational  discussion  of  a  modus  vivoidi 
with  the  provinces.  The  federalists  favoured  the 
establishment  of  a  system  like  that  of  the  United 
States,  while  the  unitarians  clung  to  the  idea  of  a 
nation  organised  more  after  the  model  of  the  French 
Republic. 

In  1825  the  provinces  were  represented  at  a  gen- 
eral constituent  congress  which  assembled  in  Buenos 
Aires.  After  much  discussion  the  unitarians,  with 
Rivadavia  at  their  head,  finally  obtained  control. 
In  1826  he  was  elected  executive  chief  of  the  fed- 
eration. This  election,  however,  did  not  make  him 
president  in  fact.  Recognition  from  the  Cabildos 
and  the  caudillos  was  practically  of  greater  import- 
ance than  the  vote  of  a  congress  of  delegates  who 
were  unable  to  insure  the  acquiescence  of  their  con- 
stituencies. Rivadavia's  favourite  plan  of  placing 
the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  directly  under  the  control 
of  the  central  government  excited  bitter  opposition 
among  the  federalists  of  Buenos  Aires.  Under  tiieir 
leader,  Manuel  Dorrego,  they  protested  vehemently 
against  the  dismemberment  of  their  home  province. 


120  ARGENTINA 

Meanwhile  the  crazy  fabric  was  subjected  to  the 
strain  of  a  serious  foreign  war.  In  1825  the  country 
districts  of  Uruguay  rose  against  their  Brazilian 
rulers.  The  Argentines  went  wild  with  joy  when 
they  heard  of  the  victory  which  the  gauchos 
won  over  the  imperial  forces  at  Sarandi.  Congress 
promptly  decreed  that  Uruguay  had  reunited  her- 
self to  the  confederation.  The  Emperor's  answer 
was  a  declaration  of  war  and  a  blockade  of  Buenos 
Aires.  The  fighting  Irish  sailor,  Admiral  William 
Brown,  again  came  to  the  front,  and  his  daring  sea- 
manship  rendered  the  Brazilian  blockade  ineffective. 
He  destroyed  a  large  division  of  their  fleet  at  the 
battle  of  Juncal,  while  fast  Baltimore  clippers,  com- 
manded by  English  and  Yankee  privateer  captains, 
swept  Brazilian  commerce  from  the  seas.  Late  in 
1826  an  Argentine  army  of  eight  thousand  men  was 
assembled  for  the  invasion  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 
Alvear,  now  returned  from  exile,  was  entrusted  with 
its  command,  and  on  the  20th  of  February,  1827, 
the  Brazilians  were  overwhelmingly  defeated  at  Itu- 
zaingo,  far  within  their  own  boundary.  The  Argen- 
tines were  not  able  to  follow  up  their  victory, 
and  shortly  returned  to  Uruguayan  territory,  but 
the  Emperor  was  never  again  able  to  undertake  an 
aggressive  campaign.  Negotiations  for  peace  were 
begun,  and  Rivadavia's  envoy  signed  a  treaty  by 
which  Uruguay  was  to  remain  a  part  of  the  empire 
of  Brazil.  A  storm  of  indignation  broke  forth  at 
Buenos  Aires,  and  Rivadavia  had  to  disavow  his  min- 
ister and  continue  the  war.  The  blow  to  his  prestige 
was,  however,  mortal ;  the  federalists  had,  indeed, 


THE  ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  121 

never  ceased  to  make  war  against  him ;  and  the  uni- 
tarian constitution  which  Congress  had  adopted  at 
his  dictation  was  rejected  unanimously  by  the  pro- 
vinces. He  resigned,  and  Dorrego,  chief  of  the  uni- 
tarians, succeeded  him  as  nominal  executive  chief 
of  the  confederation.  In  reality,  however,  the  Re- 
public was  divided  into  five  quasi-independent 
military  states.  Dorrego  ruled  in  Buenos  Aires, 
Lopez  in  Santa  Fe,  Ibarra  in  Santiago,  Bustos  in 
Cordoba,  and  Quiroga  in  Cuyo. 

Many  of  the  of^cers  of  the  army  which  had  been 
victorious  at  Ituzaingo  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
triumph  of  Dorrego  at  Buenos  Aires.  They  be- 
longed to  the  unitarian  party,  and  they  were  anxious 
themselves  to  usurp  the  places  of  the  various  caudil- 
los.  The  first  division  that  reached  Buenos  Aires 
after  the  signing  of  the  preliminary  peace  with  Bra- 
zil raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  in  the  city  itself. 
General  Lavalle  declared  himself  Governor,  while 
Dorrego  fled  to  the  interior,  only  to  be  pursued, 
captured,  and  shot,  without  the  form  of  trial,  by 
Lavalle's  personal  order.  This  began  the  fiercest 
and  bloodiest  civil  war  which  ever  desolated  the 
Argentine.  The  gauchos  of  the  southern  provinces 
rose  en  masse  to  fight  the  unitarian  regulars,  while 
the  generals  of  the  latter  began  a  series  of  campaigns 
against  all  the  federalist  provincial  governments  and 
caudillos.  General  Paz  advanced  on  Cordoba  to 
give  battle  to  Bustos,  while  Lavalle's  forces  invaded 
Santa  Fe.  Rosas,  the  chief  of  southern  Buenos 
Aires,  had  rallied  the  federalists  of  that  province. 
He  himself  joined  Lopez,  the  caudillo  of  Santa  F^, 


122  ARGENTINA 

while  he  left  behind  a  considerable  force  of  his 
gauchos  to  threaten  the  city  from  the  south.  La- 
valle  sent  some  of  his  best  regiments  against  the 
latter  body,  but  to  his  surprise  his  veterans  were 
completely  cut  to  pieces  by  the  fierce  riders  of  the 
plains.  He  himself  had  to  retreat  to  Buenos  Aires, 
while  Rosas  and  Lopez  defeated  him  under  the  very 
walls  of  the  city. 

These  victories  made  the  Buenos  Aires  federalist 
leader,  Juan  Manuel  Rosas,  the  chief  figure  in  Argen- 
tine affairs.  Thenceforth,  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  he  was  the  absolute  dictator  and  tyrant  of 
Buenos  Aires.  The  most  bitterly  hated  man  in 
Argentine  history,  probably  no  other  leader  had  as 
profound  an  influence  in  preparing  the  Argentine 
nation  for  the  consolidation  which  was  so  shortly  to 
follow  his  own  fall  from  power.  His  personal  char- 
acteristics and  his  public  career  are  equally  interest- 
ing. The  scion  of  a  wealthy  Buenos  Aires  family, 
from  his  childhood  he  devoted  himself  to  cattle- 
raising  on  the  vast  family  estates  of  the  southern 
pampas.  He  became  the  model  and  idol  of  the 
gauchos.  By  the  time  he  was  twenty-five,  he  was 
the  acknowledged  king  of  the  southern  pampas,  with 
a  thousand  hard-riding,  half-savage  horsemen  obey- 
ing his  orders.  In  1820  he  and  his  regiment  were 
chief  factors  in  the  revolution  that  placed  General 
Rodriguez  in  power  at  Buenos  Aires.  Through  the 
more  peaceful  years  that  followed,  his  power  grew 
until  he  was  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  country 
people  of  Buenos  Aires  province  and  their  champion 
against  the  city.     He  had  been  fairly  well  educated, 


THE   ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  \2% 

his  information  was  wide,  and  his  intellectual  abili- 
ties w'ere  of  a  high  order.  But  he  thoroughly  iden- 
tified his  tastes  and  prejudices  with  those  of  his  rude 
followers,  and  in  politics  he  was  fiercely  unitarian. 
The  victories  of  1829  over  Lavalle  placed  him  in 
supreme  power  at  Buenos  Aires  and  made  him  the 
nominal  head  of  the  whole  Argentine. 

His  real  power  was,  however,  far  from  extending 
over  the  whole  territory.  General  Paz  with  his 
veterans  of  the  Brazilian  war  had  expelled  Bustos 
from  Cordoba  and  firmly  established  himself  as  ruler 
of  that  province.  Quiroga,  the  redoubtable  caudillo 
of  the  Cuyo  province,  gathered  his  swarms  of  fierce 
gauchos  from  the  western  pampas  in  the  slopes  of 
the  Andes,  and  descended  to  the  very  walls  of  Cor- 
doba, there  to  be  twice  defeated  with  awful  slaughter 
by  General  Paz.  The  latter  followed  up  his  \-ictories 
by  establishing  unitarian  governments  in  the  north- 
western provinces.  In  Cuyo  he  was  not  so  success- 
ful, and  Quiroga  managed  to  sustain  himself.  Rosas 
came  to  the  rescue  of  the  despairing  federalists  with 
the  whole  force  of  Buenos  Aires.  In  that  province 
all  opposition  to  him  had  been  crushed  and  he  was 
able  to  send  a  strong  army  against  Cordoba  which 
surprised  and  captured  General  Paz  himself.  This 
misfortune  demoralised  the  unitarians.  The  federal- 
ists and  the  terrible  Quiroga  again  triumphed  in 
most  of  the  western  provinces.  It  is  estimated  that 
more  than  twenty-three  thousand  unitarians  fell  in 
battle.  Part  of  Paz's  army  retired  to  Tucuman  and 
were  there  surrounded  by  an  overwhelming  force 
under  Quiroga.     Though  their  position  was  hopeless 


124  AkGENTINA 

they  did  not  offer  to  surrender,  nor  would  quar- 
ter have  been  given  them  had  they  asked  it.  In 
these  internecine  conflicts,  the  beaten  side  usually 
fought  it  out  to  the  last  man,  selling  their  lives  as 
dearly  as  possible.  Five  hundred  prisoners,  taken 
at  Tucuman  were  shot  in  cold  blood,  and  only  a  few 
small  bands  escaped  to  Bolivia. 

Rosas  filled  the  offices  in  the  provinces  with  his 
partisans,  while  the  obsequious  authorities  of  the 
capital  conferred  upon  him  the  high-sounding  title, 
"Restorer  of  the  Laws."  He  made  a  feint  or  two 
of  resigning  the  governorship,  and  in  fact  left  it  in 
other  hands  while  he  led  an  army  against  the  In- 
dians of  the  South.  He  soon  returned  with  the 
prestige  of  having  extended  white  domination  far 
beyond  its  former  boundaries.  After  much  show 
of  reluctance,  in  1835  he  accepted  the  title  of  Gover- 
nor and  Captain-General,  and  a  special  statute  ex- 
pressly confided  to  him  the  whole  "sum  of  the  public 
power." 

The  thousands  of  murders,  betrayals,  and  treasons 
of  the  long  civil  wars  had  sapped  the  foundations  of 
good  faith  in  human  kindness.  The  unitarians  were 
mere  outlaws,  their  property  was  constantly  subject 
to  confiscation,  and  their  lives  were  never  safe. 
Rosas  himself,  least  of  all,  could  confide  in  the  faith- 
fulness of  his  partisans.  Things  had  come  to  such 
a  pass  that  no  one  could  rule  except  by  force. 
Whoever  was  in  power  was  sure  to  be  hated  by  the 
majority  and  plotted  against  by  many,  though  he 
might  have  been  raised  to  command  by  the  acclama- 
tion of  the  whole  population.     Rosas  was  a  product 


THE  ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  12$ 

of  the  conditions  that  surrounded  him.  Belgrano, 
Rivadavia,  and  every  one  who  had  tried  to  establish 
a  civil  government  had  failed.  The  forces  of  mili- 
tarism and  federalism  had  been  too  strong  for  them. 
From  among  the  ambitious  military  chieftains  the 
strongest  and  fittest  survived.  Rosas  understood 
-the  conditions  under  which  he  held  power  and  took 
the  measures  his  experience  had  taught  him  would 
be  most  effective  in  preserving  it.  He  undertook  to 
forestall  revolt  by  creating  a  reign  of  terror;  he  re- 
placed the  blue  and  white  of  Buenos  Aires  by  red — 
the  colour  of  his  own  faction  ;  the  wearing  of  a  scrap 
of  blue  was  considered  proof  of  treason.  A  club  of 
desperadoes,  called  the  Massorca,  was  formed  of 
men  sworn  to  do  his  bidding,  even  though  it  might 
be  to  murder  their  own  relatives.  No  one  suspected 
of  disaffection  was  safe  for  a  day.  Sometimes  a 
warning  was  given  so  that  the  victim  might  flee, 
leaving  his  property  to  be  confiscated ;  sometimes 
he  was  dragged  from  his  bed  and  stabbed.  The 
charge  of  deliberate  bloodthirstiness  against  Rosas 
is,  however,  hardly  borne  out  by  the  facts.  For 
political  reasons  he  did  not  hesitate  to  kill,  and  to 
kill  cruelly,  but  he  did  not  kill  for  the  mere  sake  of 
killing. 

He  was  passionately  jealous  of  foreign  interfer- 
ence. Early  in  his  reign  he  quarrelled  with  the 
government  of  France  over  questions  in  regard  to 
the  domicile  and  obligations  of  foreign  residents. 
The  French  fleet,  assisted  later  by  that  of  Great 
Britain,  blockaded  Buenos  Aires.  But  Rosas  defied 
their  combined  power;  although  in  this  very  year 


126  ARGENTINA 

(1835)  he  was  menaced  by  a  formidable  invasion 
from  the  banished  unitarians.  In  Uruguay  the 
"colorados"  occupied  Montevideo  and  had  formed 
a  close  alliance  with  the  Argentine  exiles.  Monte- 
video was  the  centre  of  resistance  to  Rosas  and  from 
its  walls  went  out  expeditions  to  end  the  revolts 
which  continually  broke  forth.  In  1842  the  allied 
unitarians  and  colorados  suffered  a  great  defeat  from 
Rosas's  right  arm  in  the  field,  General  Urquiza,  and 
thenceforth  Oribe,  chief  of  the  Uruguayan  "blan- 
cos"  besieged  the  colorados  in  Montevideo  and  con- 
trolled the  country  districts.  This  apparently  ended 
all  hope  of  expelling  Rosas  from  power.  The  emi- 
gration of  the  intelligent  and  high-spirited  youth  of 
Buenos  Aires  to  Montevideo  and  Chile  increased. 
Among  these  exiles  and  martyrs  to  their  devotion 
to  constitutional  government  were  many  Argentines 
who  shortly  rose  to  the  top  in  politics  and  whose 
abilities  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  intellectual 
movement.  Among  them  were  Mitre,  Vicente 
Lopez,  Sarmiento,  Valera,  and  Echeverria,  who 
share  the  honour  of  establishing  civil  government  in 
Buenos  Aires,  and  who  aided  Urquiza  in  preventing 
South  America  from  becoming  a  military  empire,  and 
in  uniting  the  Argentine  province  into  a  stable  nation. 
The  longer  the  tyrant  reigned,  the  less  men  re- 
membered their  own  factional  divisions.  Practicall), 
the  whole  civil  population  of  the  capital  was  ready 
to  support  a  rebellion.  Rosas,  however,  was  to 
fall,  not  by  a  revolution  in  Buenos  Aires,  but  be- 
cause his  system  was  inconsistent  with  the  local 
autonomy  of  the  provinces.      He  put  his  partisans 


128  ARGENTINA 

into  power  as  military  governors,  but  no  bond  was 
strong  enough  to  keep  them  faithful  to  his  interests. 
As  soon  as  they  were  well  established  in  their  sat- 
rapies, they  became  jealous  of  their  own  prerogatives 
and  of  the  rights  of  their  people.  Rosas  ceased  to 
be  a  real  federalist  when  he  made  Buenos  Aires  the 
centre  of  his  power.  He  lived  there,  he  raised  most 
of  his  revenue  there,  and  the  city's  interests  became 
in  a  sense  synonymous  with  his  own.  He  excluded 
foreigners  from  the  provinces,  he  forbade  direct  com- 
munication between  the  banks  of  the  Parand  and 
Uruguay  and  the  outside  world.  Everything  was 
required  to  be  trans-shipped  at  Buenos  Aires  so  that 
it  might  be  subject  to  duty. 

The  chief  lieutenant  of  Rosas  was  General  Urqui- 
za,  whom  he  had  appointed  governor  of  Entre  Rios. 
The  latter's  generalship  overcame  the  unitarian  re- 
bellions in  that  province  and  repelled  the  invasions 
from  Uruguay.  Under  his  wise  and  moderate  rule 
the  province  flourished  and  recovered  from  the 
devastations  of  the  previous  civil  wars.  Its  fertile 
plains  were  covered  with  magnificent  herds  of  cattle 
and  horses,  which  fed  and  mounted  an  admirable 
cavalry.  Urquiza  himself  was  the  greatest  rancher 
in  the  province  and  could  raise  an  army  from  his  own 
estates.  Entrenched  between  the  vast-moving  floods 
of  the  Uruguay  and  Paraguay,  he  was  practically 
safe  from  attack,  and  his  relations  with  his  neigh- 
bours in  Corrientes,  Uruguay,  Paraguay,  and  Brazil 
were  those  of  warm  friendship  and  alliance,  as  soon 
as  he  had  declared  against  the  tyrant,  who,  seated 
at  the  mouth  of  the   Plate,   cut   off  the  countries 


TtiE  ERA    OF  CIVIL    WARS  129 

above  from  free  access  to  the  sea.  Though  Urquiza 
was  a  caudillo  he  had  no  such  ambition  for  supreme 
power  as  plagued  Rosas.  He  was  even-tempered, 
of  simple  tastes,  and  careless  of  military  glory. 

In  1846  the  rupture  between  him  and  Rosas  came, 
and  thenceforth  he  devoted  himself  to  the  overthrow 
of  the  tyrant.  Three  times  his  attacks  failed ;  but, 
in  1 85 1,  he  arranged  an  alliance  with  Brazil  and 
with  the  Colorado  faction  in  Uruguay.  The  war  was 
opened  by  Urquiza's  crossing  the  Uruguay  and,  in 
conjunction  with  a  Brazilian  army,  suddenly  falling 
upon  the  blancos,  who,  in  alliance  with  Rosas,  were 
besieging  Montevideo.  Most  of  the  defeated  forces 
joined  his  army,  and  accompanied  by  his  Brazilian 
and  Uruguayan  allies  he  recrossed  the  Uruguay  and 
moved  over  the  Entre  Rios  plains  to  a  point  on  the 
Parana  just  at  the  head  of  the  delta.  The  Brazilian 
fleet  penetrated  up  the  river  to  protect  his  crossing, 
and  on  the  24th  of  December  the  entire  force  of 
twenty-four  thousand  men,  the  largest  which  up  to 
that  time  had  ever  assembled  in  South  America,  was 
safely  over  and  encamped  on  the  dry  pampas  of 
Santa  Fe.  The  road  to  Buenos  Aires  was  open. 
Rosas  could  do  nothing  but  wait  there  and  trust  all 
to  the  result  of  a  single  battle.  On  the  3rd  of  Feb- 
ruary he  was  crushingly  defeated  in  the  battle  of 
Caseros,  fought  within  a  few  miles  of  the  city.  Of 
the  twenty  thousand  men  he  led  into  action  half 
proved  treacherous,  and  many  of  his  principal  ofificers 
betrayed  him.  He  took  refuge  at  the  British  Lega- 
tion, and  thence  was  sent  on  board  a  man-of-wai 
which  carried  him  into  exile. 

VOL.  1.— 9. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CONSOLIDATION 


AFTER  forty  years  of  struggle  no  formula  had 
been  found  which  would  satisfy  the  aspira- 
tions for  local  self-government  and  at  the  same  time 
secure  the  external  union  so  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  country.  The  questions  between  the 
provinces  and  Buenos  Aires,  and  between  the  diffc- 
ent  cities  which  were  rivals  in  the  race  for  national 
leadership,  seemed  to  a  superficial  glance  to  be  as  far 
as  ever  from  solution.  There  had,  however,  been  a 
shifting  of  the  material  balance  of  power  which  was 
soon  to  change  the  situation.  The  provinces  had 
suffered  most  severely  from  the  long  civil  wars. 
Corrientes  was  well-nigh  a  desert,  in  Santa  Fe  the 
Indians  roamed  up  to  the  gates  of  the  capital  town, 
and  the  Andean  provinces  were  isolated  and  poor. 
The  long  peace  under  Rosas's  rule  had  increased 
the  wealth  and  population  of  Buenos  Aires.  The 
city  lost  hundreds  of  enthusiastic  young  liberals, 
but  it  gained  thousands  who  fled  from  the  disorders 
of  the  interior.  Its  population  had  doubled  since 
his  accession.     Thirty  thousand  English,  Irish,  and 

130 


CON  so  LI  DA  no  AT  1 3 1 

Scotch  had  crowded  in  to  engage  in  sheep-raising, 
and  the  rural  population  of  Buenos  Aires  province 
was  nearly  two  hundred  thousand.  City  and  country 
together  had  doubled,  while  the  rest  of  the  confed- 
eration had  only  increased  one-half.  The  capital 
province  now  contained  twenty-seven  per  cent,  of 
the  total  population,  and  the  disproportion  in  wealth 
and  percentage  of  foreigners  was  far  greater.  The 
number  of  sheep  increased  from  two  and  a  half  mil- 
lion in  1830  to  five  times  that  number,  and  by  1850 
there  were  eight  million  cattle  and  three  million 
horses  in  the  single  province. 

All  over  the  country  rational  ideas  about  gov- 
ernment had  made  progress.  The  people  were 
thoroughly  sickened  of  military  rule.  Civilisation, 
education,  and  general  intelligence  were  spreading 
their  beneficent  influences;  industry,  commerce,  and 
the  pursuit  of  wealth  were  absorbing  more  of  the 
national  energies. 

Urquiza,  greatest  of  the  caudillos,  saw  that  with- 
out peace  and  union  Entre  Rios  could  not  be  insured 
prosperity.  He  had  no  sooner  entered  Buenos  Aires 
than  he  took  measures  looking  to  the  framing  and 
adoption  of  a  federal  constitution.  After  his  vic- 
tory he  was  named  provisional  director  of  the  con- 
federation, but  he  showed  no  wish  to  play  the  role 
of  a  Rosas.  All  the  governors  met  and  agreed  to 
the  calling  of  a  Constituent  Congress,  in  which  each 
province  was  to  have  an  equal  vote.  As  a  further 
precaution  against  the  predominance  of  Buenos 
Aires  the  session  was  to  be  held  in  Santa  Fe.  The 
provinces  were  anxious  to  form  a  strong  federation 


132  ARGENTINA 

and  the  only  opposition  came  from  Buenos  Aires. 
Her  statesmen  did  not  realise  that  she  was  bound 
to  be  the  centre  of  the  system  and  that  the  pull 
of  her  superior  mass  would,  before  many  years,  be 
sufficient  to  control  the  aberrations  of  the  satellites. 
Though  the  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  had  agreed 
on  behalf  of  his  province,  and  though  Urquiza's 
military  power  was  overwhelming,  the  legislature  of 
that  province  refused  its  assent.  It  was  clear  that 
Buenos  Aires  and  the  other  provinces  would  not  be 
able  to  agree  upon  a  basis  of  union.  The  ambitious 
cities  of  the  interior  each  aspired  to  take  the  place 
of  Buenos  Aires  as  the  capital,  and  to  this  humilia- 
tion the  latter  city  would  never  submit  unless  after 
another  civil  war. 

Urquiza  determined  not  to  use  force,  and  retired 
to  his  ranch.  As  soon  as  he  was  out  of  sight,  the 
city  rose  in  arms  against  his  nominees.  The  broad- 
minded  Entre  Rios  chieftain  sent  back  word  that  he 
had  won  the  battle  of  Caseros  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  giving  Buenos  Aires  her  liberty  and  that  he  would 
not  now  intervene  to  prevent  her  making  the  use  of 
it  she  chose.  He  even  disbanded  his  troops.  How- 
ever, when  the  Buenos  Aireans  marched  an  army  to 
the  attack  of  Santa  F6  where  the  Constituent  Con- 
gress, attended  by  delegates  from  all  the  other  pro- 
vinces, was  holding  its  sessions,  he  again  took  the 
field.  A  counter-revolution  broke  out  in  the  rural 
districts  of  the  Buenos  Aires  province  against  the 
faction  dominant  in  the  city.  Urquiza  joined  his 
forces  to  theirs  and  besieged  the  town.  A  land 
siege  was  useless  without  a  blockade  on  the  water 


CON  so  LI  DA  TION  1 3  3 

side,  and  Urquiza  tried  to  establish  one.  He  was 
unsuccessful  because  the  commanders  of  his  ships 
treacherously  betrayed  him,  surrendering  to  the  city 
party  for  a  heavy  bribe.  He  raised  the  siege  and 
retired  to  the  northern  provinces. 

Buenos  Aires  virtually  declared  her  independence 
of  the  other  provinces  by  this  action,  but  the  latter 
took  no  further  steps  to  force  her  into  their  union. 
Urquiza  and  his  followers  had,  however,  accom- 
plished more  toward  uniting  the  Argentine  into  a 
firmly  knit  nation  than  had  been  done  in  the  pre- 
vious forty  years.  The  opposition  of  Buenos  Aires 
helped  convince  the  other  provinces  of  the  necessity 
of  a  union.  With  the  mouth  of  the  river  in  the 
hands  of  a  hostile  state  more  powerful  than  any 
one  of  them  separately,  the  position  of  Entre  Rios, 
Santa  Fe,  or  any  one  of  the  others,  would  have  been 
critical.  Only  by  uniting  could  they  hope  to  main- 
tain themselves  and  avoid  absorption  in  detail.  In- 
telligent Argentines  had  long  been  convinced  of  the 
desirability  of  a  firm  and  enduring  union,  and  the 
present  danger  crystallised  that  conviction  in  men's 
minds.  Back  of  all  this  was  Urquiza's  influence. 
At  last  a  military  chief  had  come  to  the  possession 
of  supreme  power  who  was  willing  to  aid  his  country 
in  establishing  a  stable  and  free  government,  and 
whose  purpose  was  not  merely  the  gratification  of 
his  own  love  of  power.  Argentine  writers  are  divided 
in  their  opinion  of  Urquiza's  real  abilities,  and  many 
think  that  ignorance  and  irresolution,  rather  than  a 
lofty  patriotism,  caused  his  moderation  after  his  vic- 
tory over  Rosas.      Intelligent  foreigners,  however, 


134  ARGENTINA 

who  saw  the  Plate  for  themselves  during  this 
period  are  unanimous  in  praising  his  character,  his 
dignified  bearing,  his  liberality,  and  his  capacities. 
Argentina  had  passed  the  stage  when  a  military  dic- 
tator was  her  natural  chief.  The  day  for  consti- 
tutional government  had  arrived ;  Urquiza  was  a 
product  of  his  time,  and  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously embodied  the  changed  political  sentiments 
of  his  countrymen. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1853,  the  Constituent  Con- 
gress adopted  a  constitution  substantially  copied 
from  that  of  the  United  States  of  North  America — 
and  that  constitution,  with  a  few  amendments,  has 
continued  to  be  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Argen- 
tine Republic.  The  navigation  of  the  Parana  and 
the  Uruguay  was  declared  free  to  all  the  world, 
largely  as  a  reward  to  Brazil  for  her  assistance 
against  Rosas,  although  she  protested  against  the 
extension  of  that  liberty  to  any  nations  except  those 
who  had  territory  on  the  banks.  The  city  of  Parana, 
in  the  province  of  Entre  Rios  and  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  Parana  River,  was  made  temporary 
capital  of  the  Republic.  The  various  provincial 
capitals  had  been  unable  to  agree  that  any  one  of 
them,  should  have  the  honour  and  profit  of  being  the 
political  metropolis,  and  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires 
was  selected  as  the  permanent  capital,  to  become 
such  as  soon  as  the  province  of  that  name  should 
enter  the  confederation.  The  delegates  had  a 
double  purpose  in  making  this  selection.  Buenos 
Aires  was  the  natural  commercial  and  political 
centre,    and,  all   things   considered,  the  most  con- 


CON  SOLID  A  TION-  1 3  5 

veni'ent  location  in  the  provinces.  In  the  second 
place,  they  desired  to  weaken  the  great  province  of 
Buenos  Aires  by  cutting  it  in  two,  and  to  curb  the 
city's  political  influence  by  placing  it  directly  under 
the  control  of  the  federal  government. 

Urquiza  was  naturally  selected  as  the  first  Presi- 
dent, and  was  recognised  by  foreign  nations.  Buenos 
Aires  protested,  claiming  still  to  be,  for  international 
purposes,  the  Argentine  nation.  She  did  not,  how- 
ever, formally  declare  her  independence  and  seek  for 
recognition  as  a  new  power.  Buenos  Aires,  as  well 
as  the  confederation,  looked  forward  to  the  time 
when  she  would  join  the  latter.  Throughout 
Urquiza's  six-year  term,  the  provinces  prospered 
amazingly.  His  administration  of  his  province  had 
guaranteed  the  security  of  property,  and  now  as 
President  he  extended  the  blessings  of  peace  to 
much  of  the  rest  of  the  confederation.  The  new 
bonds  sat  lightly  on  the  outlying  provinces  of  the 
Andean  regions,  but  Urquiza  did  not  stretch  his 
constitutional  authority  to  interfere  with  them,  sat- 
isfied to  let  them  learn  by  degrees  that  the  right  of 
local  self-government  guaranteed  by  the  paper  con- 
stitution would  be  respected  in  practice.  The  free- 
dom of  navigation  caused  unprecedented  prosperity 
in  the  river  provinces.  The  towns  on  the  Parana 
and  Uruguay  doubled  in  population  during  his  six- 
years'  service.  Corrientes  had  been  continually 
ravaged  by  the  civil  wars  as  lately  as  the  last  few 
years  of  Rosas's  reign,  but  the  assurance  of  peace 
was  all  that  was  needed  to  start  the  rebuilding  of 
the  houses  and  the  restockincj  of  the  ranches.     The 


1 36  ARGENTINA 

impulse  in  population,  wealth,  and  commerce  then 
given  to  the  river  provinces  has  never  since  lost 
its  force.  Foreign  capital  and  immigration  were 
invited  and  the  rivers  and  harbours  carefully  sur- 
veyed. Rosario,  in  Santa  Fe,  was  made  a  port  of 
entry  and  began  a  growth  that  has  made  it  second 
only  to  Buenos  Aires  itself. 

In  Buenos  Aires  events  were  gradually  shaping 
themselves  toward  reuniting  that  province  with  the 
confederation.  A  liberal  provincial  constitution 
was  adopted,  and  though  the  ruling  bureaucracy 
preferred  the  statu  quo,  fearing  that  their  own  fall 
from  power  would  follow  any  triumph  of  the  pro- 
vincials, they  were  unable  to  hold  the  city  in  check. 
It  was  too  evident  that  the  real  interests  of  the  city, 
and  even  her  future  commercial  supremacy,  were 
menaced  by  a  continuance  of  the  separation.  In 
1859  tl"^^  situation  became  so  strained  that  Buenos 
Aires  marched  an  army  to  attack  the  federal  govern- 
ment. Urquiza  met  it  near  the  borders  of  Santa  Fe 
and  Buenos  Aires,  and  administered  a  defeat.  He 
advanced  to  the  city  and  required  his  vanquished 
opponents  to  agree  to  accept  the  constitution  of 
1853,  and  to  consent  that  Buenos  Aires  should  be- 
come a  member  of  the  confederation.  He  yielded, 
however,  to  the  wishes  of  many  Buenos  Aireans 
and  consented  in  the  interests  of  harmony,  that  the 
question  of  the  dismembering  of  the  city  from  the 
province  and  capitalising  the  former  should  remain 
open  for  future  determination.  The  essential  justice 
in  all  other  respects  of  the  constitution  of  1853  had 
long  been  admitted  even  in  Buenos  Aires  and  there 


CON  SOLID  A  TION  1 37 

remained  no  reason  why  the  latter  should  not  enter 
the  confederation  once  and  for  all.  On  the  21st  of 
October,  i860,  General  Bartolome  Mitre,  Governor 
of  Buenos  Aires,  swore  to  the  constitution,  saying: 
"This  is  the  permanent  organic  law,  the  real  expres- 
sion of  the  perpetual  union  of  the  members  of  the 
Argentine  family,  so  long  separated  by  civil  war  and 
bloodshed." 

Meanwhile,  Urquiza's  term  had  expired.  Dr. 
Derqui,  his  successor,  was  suspected  of  designs 
against  the  autonomy  of  the  provincial  governments. 
The  assassination  of  the  Governor  of  San  Juan  and 
the  succession  of  a  member  of  an  opposite  faction, 
was  made  the  occasion  for  Federal  intervention  in 
the  affairs  of  that  province.  The  government  of 
Buenos  Aires  protested  and  it  became  evident  that 
this  untoward  event  was  soon  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  newly  formed  confederation.  The  Federal 
Congress,  under  Derqui  influence,  refused  to  admit 
the  members  from  Buenos  Aires.  Mitre  marched 
out  at  the  head  of  her  forces  and  at  the  battle  of 
Pavon,  September  17,  1861,  he  overthrew  the  pro- 
vincial forces,  Buenos  Aires  remained  mistress  of 
the  situation.  The  governments  of  certain  pro- 
vinces had  been  imposed  on  their  people  by  the  Der- 
qui administration,  or  they  were  obnoxious  to  the 
triumphant  Buenos  Aires  party.  They  were  over- 
thrown and  Derqui  was  deposed.  Happily  for  the 
Argentine,  Mitre  was  a  sincere  patriot  and,  though 
young,  was  moderate  and  conciliatory.  Made  presi- 
dent of  the  republic  as  the  representative  of  the 
victorious   Buenos  Aireans,  he  set  about  the  final 


138  ARGENTINA 

reorganisation  of  constitutional  government  in  a 
spirit  of  unselfishness  and  with  a  foresight  and  skill 
that  greatly  aided  to  save  his  country  from  the 
sterilising  anarchy  of  civil  war. 

The  accession  of  Mitre  in  1862  marked  the  end  of 
the  period  of  uncertainty.  The  government  of  the 
Argentine  Republic  was  now  finally  and  definitely 
established  and  fixed,  after  fifty-two  years  of  con- 
flict. The  constitution  of  1853  was  left  unamended, 
except  that  Buenos  Aires  became  the  seat  of  federal 
government  without  being  separated  from  its  pro- 
vince or  ceasing  to  be  the  provincial  capital.  The 
free  international  navigation  of  the  rivers  was  not 
interfered  with,  and  Buenos  Aires  abandoned  her 
pretensions  to  special  commercial  privileges.  She 
was  thenceforward  more  and  more  the  centre  of 
gravitation  and  power  for  the  whole  republic,  but 
her  influence  came  from  legitimate  natural  causes 
and  was  exercised  within  constitutional  limits.  The 
autonomy  of  the  provinces  was  not  interfered  with, 
and  it  was  no  longer  possible,  even  in  the  remotest 
districts,  for  a  caudillo  to  rally  at  his  call  the  gau- 
chos,  always  ready  for  a  raid,  a  campaign,  or  an 
invasion. 

Though  the  form  of  the  federal  government  was 
fixed  and  its  theoretical  supremacy  has  never  since 
been  questioned,  its  real  power  at  first  was  feeble. 
Urquiza  was  master  in  the  mesopotamian  provinces, 
and  in  case  of  need  Mitre  could  count  on  little  mili- 
tary help  except  from  his  own  province.  The  only 
result  of  the  battle  of  Pavon  which  was  immediately 
apparent  was  the  shifting  of  the  centre  of  power 


CONSOLIDA  TION' 


139 


from  Urquiza's  capital  to  Buenos  Aires.  Neverthe- 
less, henceforth  the  tendency  was  constantly  toward 
strengthening  the  bonds  of  union.      Urquiza  and  the 


i  ^&y^ 


I — 


BARTOLOME    MITRE. 
[From  a  steel  engraving.] 


other  provincial  governors  showed  no  disposition  to 
attack  the  central  authority,  and  in  turn  the  latter" 
was  careful  to  avoid  useless  aggressions  against  them. 
The  problem  of  reconciling  provincial  rights  with  the 


14©  ARGENTINA 

existence  of  an  adequate  federal  government  had  at 
last  been  solved.  The  nation  passed  on  to  a  still 
more  difficult  question, — the  smooth  and  satisfac- 
tory working  of  democratic  representative  institu- 
tions in  the  absence  of  an  effective  participation  in 
public  affairs  on  the  part  of  the  bulk  of  the  popula- 
tion. Elections  have  not  carried  the  prestige  of 
being  the  expression  of  the  majority  will.  The  rul- 
ing classes  have  been  anxious  enough  to  obey  the 
popular  voice  and  to  govern  wisely,  but  people  can 
only  gradually  be  trained  into  the  habit  of  express- 
ing their  will  clearly  and  indisputably  at  regular 
elections.  The  insignificant  disturbances  to  public 
order  which  have  occurred  since  1862  have  been 
indications  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  imperfect  de- 
tail workings  of  the  complicated  system  of  ascertain- 
ing the  popular  wishes,  or  hasty  protests  against 
mistakes  on  the  part  of  those  in  power.  Never 
have  they  endangered  the  Federal  constitution  nor 
diverted  the  steady  course  of  the  nation's  progress 
in  the  art  of  self-eovernment. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    MODERN   ARGENTINE 

GENERAL  MITRE'S  administration  is  memor- 
able for  the  beginning  of  that  tremendous 
industrial  development  which  in  thirty  years  made 
Argentina,  in  proportion  to  population,  the  greatest 
exporting  country  in  the  world.  Foreign  capital 
and  immigration  were  chief  factors  in  the  trans- 
formation that  within  a  few  decades  changed  an 
isolated  and  industrially  backward  community  into 
a  nation  possessing  all  the  appliances  and  luxuries 
of  the  most  advanced  material  civilisation. 

In  1865  circumstances  forced  Mitre  into  the  Para- 
guayan war.  Lopez,  the  Paraguayan  dictator,  hated 
the  Buenos  Aireans  quite  as  much  as  he  did  the 
Brazilians  with  whom  he  was  constantly  quarrelling, 
and  he  was  only  awaiting  a  favourable  opportunity 
to  vent  his  dislike  on  either  or  both.  He  counted 
on  the  coolness  that  naturally  existed  between  Ur- 
quiza  and  Mitre  to  insure  him  the  former's  aid. 
In  1864  Brazil  intervened  in  the  affairs  of  Uruguay 
by  assisting  one  of  the  parties  in  the  civil  war  then 
raging.      Lopez   regarded    the    action    of    Brazil    as 

141 


t42  ARGENTINA 

endangering  the  balance  of  power  in  the  Plate  re-^ 
gions.  In  retaHation  he  seized  the  Brazilian  province 
of  Matto  Grosso,  which  lay  along  the  Paraguay  north 
of  his  own  territory.  Mitre  wished  to  remain  neu- 
tral, although  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  brutal 
despot,  and  had  an  understanding  about  Brazil's 
action  in  Uruguay  which  safeguarded  the  interest? 
of  Argentina.  Lopez,  however,  insolently  de- 
manded free  passage  across  Argentine  territory  for 
the  troops  which  he  wished  to  send  against  Brazil 
and  Uruguay.  Mitre's  refusal  was  followed  by  a 
Paraguayan  invasion,  and  national  honour  required 
that  this  violation  of  territory  be  resented.  Brazil 
and  the  Flores  faction  in  Uruguay  welcomed  the 
alliance  of  Argentina.  The  Paraguayan  invasion 
was  repulsed  by  their  combined  forces,  and  the  allies 
advanced  up  the  Parand  against  Lopez  in  his  own 
dominions.  It  was  natural  that  Mitre  should  be 
commander-in-chief  of  the  allied  armies,  although 
Brazil  furnished  the  bulk  of  the  troops  and  bore  the 
brunt  of  the  expense.  Urquiza  disappointed  Lopez 
in  refusing  to  revolt  against  Buenos  Aires,  and  al- 
though he  took  no  great  personal  interest  in  the  war 
he  co-operated  in  many  ways  with  Mitre. 

The  enormous  expenditures  of  the  Brazilian  gov- 
ernment furnished  a  splendid  cash  market  for  Ar 
gentine  stock  and  produce,  and  the  resulting  profits 
compensated  for  the  pecuniary  sacrifices  involved. 
In  two  years'  fighting  both  the  Argentine  and  the 
Brazilian  armies  suffered  tremendous  losses  on  the 
field  and  in  the  cholera  hospitals.  After  the  great 
repulse  at  Curupayty  in  1867  the  number  of  Argen- 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  1 43 

tine  troops  was  largely  reduced.  When  the  Brazilian 
fleet  finally  forced  the  passage  of  the  river,  opening 
the  way  to  Asuncion,  Mitre  resigned  the  command 
into  the  hands  of  the  Brazilian  general  Caxias,  and 
the  last  two  years  of  the  war  were  carried  on  princi- 
pally by  Brazilian  troops.  By  the  peace  of  1870 
Argentina's  title  to  certain  valuable  territory  was 
quieted,  and  she  gained  an  important  commercial  ad- 
vantage by  the  opening  of  Paraguay  to  her  trade. 
Her  commercial  and  industrial  leadership  in  the 
Plate  valley  has  never  since  been  endangered.  Po- 
litically also  the  indirect  results  were  gratifying. 
The  tremendous  sacrifices  in  men  and  money  had 
sickened  the  Brazilian  government  and  people  of 
foreign  complications.  Thereafter,  the  emperor 
pursued  a  policy  of  non-interference,  which  has  left 
to  his  Spanish  neighbours  a  free  hand  among  them- 
selves. With  the  withdrawal  of  the  Brazilian  troops 
from  Paraguay,  the  balance  of  political  power  began 
slowly  to  pass  from  Rio  to  Buenos  Aires. 

Sarmiento,  the  "schoolmaster  president,"  suc- 
ceeded Mitre  in  1868.  His  election  is  said  to  have 
been  the  freest  and  most  peaceful  ever  held  in  the 
republic  and  to  have  represented  as  nearly  as  any 
the  will  of  the  electors.  The  development  of  popu- 
lation, wealth,  and  industry  continued  in  increas- 
ing geometrical  proportion.  During  forty-five  years 
before  1857  the  population  had  only  a  little  more 
than  doubled ;  during  the  forty-five  years  since  that 
date,  the  increase  has  been  four  hundred  and  fifty 
per  cent.  The  yearly  increment  holds  fairly  steady 
at  four  per  cent.,  which  is  as  large  as  that  of  any 


144  ARGENTINA 

country  in  the  world.  In  1869  the  city  of  Buenos 
Aires  had  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  peo- 
ple, and  in  1902  it  contained  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand.  Immigration  had  begun  to  pour  in  at 
the  rate  of  twenty  thousand  per  annum,  and  had 
rapidly  increased  to  over  a  hundred  thousand,  when 
the  great  crisis  of  1890  temporarily  interrupted  the 
flow.  The  years  from  1868  to  1872  were  prosperous 
over  much  of  the  civilised  world,  but  nowhere  more 
so  than  in  Argentina.  Sarmiento's  administration 
was,  however,  characterised  by  the  beginning  of 
that  policy  of  governmental  and  commercial  extra- 
vagance which  has  so  deeply  mortgaged  the  future 
of  Argentina,  and  has  repeatedly  hampered  the 
legitimate  development  of  this  marvellously  fertile 
region.  In  the  ten  years  prior  to  1872  foreign 
commerce  doubled,  but  the  foreign  debt  increased 
fivefold. 

The  last  of  the  caudillos,  Lopez  Jordan  of  Entre 
Rios,  revolted  in  1870  against  Urquiza,  who  was 
still  governor  of  that  province.  The  redoubtable 
old  patriot  was  captured  by  the  rebels  and  assassin- 
ated. In  1901  a  monument  was  erected  to  his 
memory  in  the  city  of  Parana,  his  old  capital,  and 
the  day  of  the  unveiling  was  a  national  festival  in 
all  the  republic.  The  Federal  government  avenged 
his  death  and  suppressed  the  insurrection  after  an 
obstinate,  expensive,  and  bloody  little  war.  Sar- 
miento's administration  was,  however,  not  popular, 
and  the  news  that  he  had  virtually  determined  to 
name  his  successor  created  much  dissatisfaction. 
Mitre  headed  the  opposition  in  the  city,  while  in 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE 


145 


the  provinces  some  of  the  discontented  went  so  far 
as  to  take  up  arms.  Julio  Roca,  then  a  young 
colonel,  defeated  them  at  Santa  Rosa,  and  Sarmi- 
ento  was  able  to  hand  over 
the  reins  of  government  to 
Dr.  Avellaneda  without 
any  further  serious  oppo- 
sition. 

A  commercial  crisis  was 
beginning  when  the  new 
President  took  office  in 
1874.  He  initiated  a 
policy  of  retrenchment, 
under  which  the  govern- 
ment managed  to  pay  its 
obligations  and  w^eather 
the  storm.  General  Roca 
was  made  Minister  of  War  and  came  into  further 
prominence  as  the  conqueror  of  the  Indians,  who 
had  hitherto  prevented  white  men  from  settling 
on  the  vast  and  valuable  southern  pampas.  In 
1854,  after  the  fall  of  Rosas,  the  Indians  recovered 
most  of  the  territory  from  which  he  had  driven 
them  twenty  years  before.  Later,  the  frontier  was 
advanced  very  slowly,  but  in  1877  Alsina,  one  of  the 
most  successful  governors  Buenos  Aires  ever  had, 
undertook  a  vigorous  campaign.  In  the  following 
year  General  Roca  threw  the  power  of  the  Federal 
government  into  this  vastly  important  enterprise. 
He  carried  the  frontier  south  to  the  Rio  Negro  and 
west  to  the  Andes,  attacking  the  Indians  in  their 
fortresses — a  policy  which  insured  permanent  white 


JULIO   ROCA. 


T46  ARGENTINA 

domination.  The  ultimate  consequences  of  opening 
up  to  civilised  settlement  the  immense  territories 
comprised  in  Roca's  conquests  cannot  yet  properly 
be  estimated.  The  vast  region  of  Patagonia,  that  v/as 
marked  on  the  maps  in  our  boyhood  as  an  unclaimed 
and  uninhabitable  arctic  waste,  has  since  been 
added  to  Argentina  as  an  indirect  result  of  Roca's 
campaign  of  1878.  Buenos  Aires  put  in  a  claim  for 
the  whole  of  the  territory  conquered  from  the  In- 
dians, but  the  Federal  statesmen  refused  to  allow 
one  province  to  become  well-nigh  as  large  as  all  the 
rest  together.  By  a  compromise  her  area  was  in- 
creased to  sixty-three  thousand  square  miles,  while 
most  of  the  new  acquisition  was  divided  into  terri- 
tories under  the  direct  administration  of  the  Federal 
government. 

As  the  time  for  the  presidential  election  of  1880 
approached,  political  matters  began  to  look  ugly. 
It  was  evident  that  Avellaneda  intended  to  choose 
his  successor.  Through  the  provincial  governors, 
the  police,  the  army,  the  employees  on  the  public 
Avorks,  and  the  officials  of  all  kinds  he  had  easy 
control  of  the  election  machinery.  Even  the  most 
scrupulous  President  often  cannot  prevent  the  exer- 
cise of  coercion  in  his  name  and  without  his  know- 
ledge. The  opposition  in  South  America  usually 
refrain  from  voting;  indeed,  it  is  considered  almost 
indelicate  for  outsiders  to  interfere  in  a  matter  so 
strictly  official  as  an  election.  The  privilege  of  vot- 
ing is  not  so  highly  prized  and  so  jealously  guarded 
as  in  the  United  States  and  the  northern  countries 
of  Europe. 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  1 47 

Avellaneda  and  his  adherents  had  fixed  upon  Gen- 
aral  Roca  as  the  next  President.  The  principal 
opposing  candidate  was  Dr.  Tejedor,  governor  of 
Buenos  Aires,  who  was  supported  by  Mitre's  party 
and  also  by  many  of  the  other  Buenos  Aires  party, 
the  * '  autonomists. ' '  The  contest  was  really  between 
Buenos  Aires  and  the  provinces.  General  Roca  was 
strong  with  the  army  and  with  the  country,  but  so 
tremendously  had  Buenos  Aires  grown  that  the  re- 
sult appeared  doubtful.  Her  population,  city  and 
province,  had  in  1880  reached  six  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand, — more  than  a  quarter  of  the  total  in  the 
whole  Confederation.  The  next  three  provinces 
put  together  did  not  equal  her  numbers  and  lagged 
still  farther  behind  in  wealth  and  ability  to  concen- 
trate their  forces. 

Radical  counsels  prevailed  in  Buenos  Aires.  Ro- 
ca's  opponents,  seeing  that  they  were  at  a  hopeless 
disadvantage  with  the  election  machinery  in  Avel- 
laneda's  hands,  determined  to  use  violence.  In 
June,  1880,  the  partisans  of  Tejedor  rose  against  the 
Federal  government.  The  police  and  militia  of 
the  city  joined  them  and  paraded  the  streets,  while 
the  alarm  flew  to  the  country,  and  the  troops  of  the 
line  began  to  concentrate  outside  the  city.  Presently 
the  President  and  his  Cabinet  fled  for  safety  to  the 
Federal  camp.  For  a  few  weeks  there  was  some 
skirmishing  and  much  negotiating,  and  in  one  en- 
counter near  the  south  end  of  the  city  a  thousand 
Buenos  Aireans  were  killed.  Finally,  the  two  sides 
came  to  an  agreement  by  which  the  Roca  party  re- 
tained substantially  all  that  they  had  been  contend- 


148  ARGENTINA 

ing  for.  The  General  succeeded  to  the  Presidency 
without  further  opposition,  and  the  city  of  Buenos 
Aires  was  detached  from  the  province.  The  federali- 
sation  of  the  great  city  was  the  last  step  in  the  pro- 
cess of  adaptation  that  had  been  going  on  ever  since 
the  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards.  Political  equilibrium 
between  the  provinces  and  Buenos  Aires  had  been 
reached.  Thenceforth  the  latter's  direct  predomi- 
nance was  to  be  purely  intellectual,  commercial,  and 
social.  For  the  privilege  of  being  capital  of  the 
republic,  the  city  exchanged  her  provincial  auto- 
nomy. Buenos  Aires  province,  as  formerly  consti- 
tuted, was  the  greatest  menace  to  a  peaceful  federal 
union.  In  an  assembly  where  the  rights  and  influ- 
ence of  all  the  provinces  were  supposed  to  be  equal, 
the  magnitude  of  Buenos  Aires  was  a  constant  oc- 
casion for  the  jealousy  of  her  smaller  sisters  and  for 
aggressions  on  her  own  part.  Deprived  of  the  city, 
the  remainder  of  the  province  was  not  powerful 
enough  to  be  dangerous.  Now  that  it  is  federalised, 
the  city  itself  proves  to  be  the  strongest  tie  binding 
together  the  different  parts  of  the  Confederation. 

The  greatest  of  all  the  waves  of  material  prosperity 
reached  its  culmination  during  Roca's  first  adminis- 
tration. Business  fairly  boomed  ;  foreign  commerce 
increased  seventy-five  per  cent,  from  1875  to  1885; 
the  exports  of  hides,  cattle,  wool,  and  wheat  swelled 
from  year  to  year;  the  railroad  mileage  tripled  in 
ten  years ;  the  revenues  mounted  sixty  per  cent,  in 
five  years ;  the  use  of  the  post-office,  that  excellent 
measure  of  education,  wealth,  and  higher  national 
energies,  tripled.     All  danger  of  disturbances  serious 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  149 

enough  to  affect  property  rights  had  long  since 
passed;  the  provincial  governors  worked  harmoni- 
ously with  the  Federal  authorities.  A  part  of  Roca's 
system  was  to  rest  his  power  as  chief  executive  on 
the  co-operation  of  the  governors;  the  members  of 
Congress  also  bore  somewhat  the  same  relation  to 
the  President.  As  a  rule,  a  majority  in  Congress 
supported  his  measures. 

In  spite  of  present  prosperity,  dangers  had  been 
inherited  from  past  administrations.  There  were 
weak  spots  in  the  political  and  financial  structure 
that  had  grown  too  rapidly  to  be  altogether  well 
built.  The  people  still  lacked  the  hard  and  con- 
tinued training  in  business  that  older  nations  have 
had,  and  the  national  temperament  tended  to- 
ward a  reckless  optimism.  European  money  lenders 
stood  ready  to  stimulate  this  tendency  by  offering 
easy  credit  facilities  in  return  for  careless  promises 
of  exaggerated  interest  rates.  The  medium  of  ex- 
change was  a  vastly  inflated  and  fluctuating  paper 
currency.  From  the  beginning  Argentine  rulers 
had  resorted  to  note  issues  to  tide  over  their  pe- 
cuniary difficulties.  When  Rosas  assumed  power 
in  1829  the  paper  dollar  was  worth  fifteen  cents,  and 
by  1846  he  had  driven  it  down  to  four  cents.  In 
1866,  Mitre's  administration  had  established  a  new 
arbitrary  par  at  twenty-five  paper  dollars  for  one 
gold  dollar.  Sarmiento's  extravagances  made  sus- 
pension necessary  and  sent  gold  to  a  premium.  In 
1883  President  Roca  remodelled  the  currency,  issu- 
ing new  notes  convertible  into  gold,  and  exchanging 
them  for  the  old  paper  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  for 


150  ARGENTINA 

one.  But  his  effort  to  contract  and  steady  the  cir- 
culating medium  excited  protests  from  a  community 
that  was  growing  rich  in  the  rapid  inflation  of  values. 
Foreign  money  was  being  loaned  to  all  sorts  of 
Argentine  enterprises  on  a  scale  that,  considering  the 
small  population  of  the  country,  has  never  been 
precedented  anywhere.  Railroads,  ranches,  com- 
mercial houses,  banks,  land  schemes,  building  enter- 
prises, were  capitalised  for  the  asking.  The  provincial 
governments  borrowed  money  recklessly,  while  in- 
terest was  guaranteed  on  new  railroads,  and  charters 
granted  to  all  sorts  of  speculative  enterprises.  The 
nation  undertook  to  supply  itself  in  a  single  decade 
with  the  drainage  works,  the  docks,  the  public  build- 
ings, the  parks,  the  railroads,  that  older  countries 
have  needed  a  generation  to  provide.  So  much 
capital  was  being  fixed  that  the  attempt  at  specie 
resumption  cramped  the  speculative  world.  Within 
two  years  it  was  given  up,  and  issues  of  paper  money 
resumed. 

General  Roca  retired  from  ofifice  in  1886,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother-in-law,  Juarez  Celman. 
The  four  years  during  which  the  latter  remained  in 
office  are  memorable  for  reckless  private  and  public 
borrowing.  The  healthy  activity  of  General  Roca's 
administration  gave  place  to  a  mad  fever  of  specu- 
lation. Congress  passed  a  national  banking  act,  and 
under  its  provisions  banks  of  issue  were  established 
in  nearly  every  province.  The  paper  circulation  al- 
most quadrupled  and  the  premium  on  gold  doubled. 
The  Federal  government  followed  the  example  set 
by  the  provinces  and  municipalities,  and  burdened 


a        ;S 


152  ARGENTINA 

the  country  with  an  indebtedness  which  has  mort- 
gaged the  future  of  the  country  for  years  to  come. 
Between  1885  and  1891  the  foreign  debt  was  in- 
creased nearly  threefold. 

During  1887  and  1888  few  apprehensions  of  the 
inevitable  result  of  the  inflation  seem  to  have  been 
entertained.  Up  to  the  very  day  of  the  crash  of 
1889  the  government  cheerfully  continued  to  bor- 
row, to  plan  magnificent  public  improvements,  and 
to  build  expensive  railways.  The  public  speculated 
confidently  in  the  mortgage  scrip  issued  through  the 
provincial  mortgage  banks.  Early  in  1889  the  gov- 
ernment began  to  have  difficulty  in  meeting  some  of 
the  enormous  obligations  which  it  had  undertaken. 
Conservative  people  became  apprehensive ;  the  inde- 
pendent press  raised  a  warning  voice.  A  minister- 
ial crisis  was  followed  by  a  panic  in  the  Exchange. 
The  new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  an  effort  to 
prevent  further  depreciation  of  the  currency,  di- 
verted the  redemption  fund  held  by  the  government 
for  bank  issues.  The  currency  dropped  with  sicken- 
ing rapidity;  the  bubble  companies  collapsed;  the 
public  realised  that  many  of  the  banks  were  unable 
to  meet  their  obligations. 

At  this  crisis  public  alarm  and  indignation  found 
a  vent  in  the  formation  of  a  revolutionary  society, 
called  the  Civic  Union,  which  was  pledged  to  over- 
throw President  Celman.  On  July  26,  1890,  dis- 
turbances began  and  there  was  a  little  fighting  in  the 
streets.  Police  and  troops,  however,  put  no  spirit 
into  their  efforts  to  suppress  the  rioters.  The  Presi- 
dent's best  friends  urged  him  to  resign,  and  Congress 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  1 53 

passed  a  formal  memorial  to  that  effect.  There  was 
nothing  for  him  to  do  but  to  obey  the  manifest  wish 
of  the  people ;  he  handed  in  his  resignation  and  the 
Vice-President,  Dr.  Carlos  Pellegrini,  peacefully  suc- 
ceeded him. 

The  situation  went  from  bad  to  worse;  in  1891 
the  currency  dropped  to  twenty-three  cents  on  the 
dollar,  the  banks  failed,  and  the  laws  for  collection 
of  debts  were  suspended  for  two  months.  The 
most  which  Dr.  Pellegrini  could  hope  to  do  was  to 
hold  things  together  until  the  general  election  should 
be  held  fifteen  months  later.  No  human  wisdom 
could  devise  measures  that  would  give  immediate 
prosperity,  and  the  public  would  be  satisfied  with 
nothing  less.  Dr.  Pellegrini  had  to  wait  until  later 
years  for  a  proper  appreciation  of  his  labours.  The 
other  two  great  national  figures  were  General  Roca 
and  General  Mitre.  The  first  had  the  prestige  of  his 
strong  and  successful  administration  ;  he  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  the  army,  and  he  was  the  head  of  the 
great  Nationalist  party  which  was  especially  power- 
ful in  the  provinces.  General  Mitre,  the  most  emi- 
nent citizen  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  in  a  way  the  living 
embodiment  of  the  previous  forty  years  of  national 
history,  had  inevitably  been  selected  as  chief  of  the 
Civic  Union.  He  had  therefore  led  the  movement 
through  which  the  public  opinion  of  the  capital  had 
overthrown  Celman. 

Mitre  and  Roca  had  co-operated  in  securing  a 
peaceful  transfer  of  the  government  from  Celman  to 
Pellegrini.  Roca  was  inclined  to  favour  Mitre  for 
the  presidency,  but  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 


154  ARGENTINA 

latter  could  not  control  the  more  radical  members 
of  the  Civic  Union,  and  that  his  candidacy  would 
not  reconcile  all  parties.  February  19,  1891,  an 
attempt  to  assassinate  Roca  was  perpetrated  in  the 
streets  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  spirit  of  mutiny  grew 
alarmingly,  and  a  state  of  siege  was  proclaimed ;  the 
Civic  Union  split  into  warring  camps;  trouble  broke 
out  in  Cordoba,  and  successful  revolutions  over- 
threw the  legal  state  governments  in  Catamarca  and 
Santiago  del  Estero.  Mitre  and  Roca  formally  with- 
drew from  active  political  life  in  the  hope  that  this 
might  placate  the  dissident  politicians. 

The  candidate  fixed  upon  by  the  wing  of  Nationals 
who  adhered  to  Roca,  and  the  moderates  of  the  Civic 
Union  led  by  Mitre,  was  Doctor  Luiz  Saenz  Pefia, 
ex-Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  Pellegrini 
government  gave  him  its  earnest  support,  and  charges 
were  made  by  the  Radicals  that  their  votes  would 
be  forcibly  suppressed  in  the  election  of  October, 
1 891.  They  determined  to  anticipate  violence  with 
violence,  but,  on  the  eve  of  the  election  in  October, 
1891,  their  leaders  were  imprisoned  and  a  state  of 
siege  declared,  Saenz  Pefta  was  elected,  but  the 
Radicals  began  to  intrigue  to  obtain  control  of  the 
provincial  governments,  which  would  enable  them 
to  force  his  resignation  or  his  compliance  with  their 
wishes.  Serious  trouble  broke  out  early  in  1892  in 
the  province  of  Corrientes,  with  which  the  Buenos 
Aires  radicals  openly  sympathised.  The  new  Presi- 
dent quickly  cut  loose  from  the  Roca  wing  of  the 
Nationalist  party  and  allied  himself  closely  with  the 
moderate  Civic  Unionists,  now  usually  called  "Mit- 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  I  55 

ristas."  The  President's  own  son,  who  had  been  a 
candidate  against  him,  headed  the  faction  of  the 
Nationalist  party  that  had  renounced  Roca's  leader- 
ship. Revolutionary  mov^ements  against  the  gov- 
ernors who  belonged  to  the  Roca  faction  began  in 
several  provinces.  In  February  there  were  armed 
protests  in  Santa  Fe  against  a  new  wheat  tax;  a  re- 
volt broke  out  in  Catamarca  in  April;  by  July  the 
Saenz  Pefia  administration  was  in  the  gravest  diffi- 
culties. San  Luiz  and  Santa  Fe  rebelled,  and  in 
August  Salta  and  Tucuman  followed.  It  was  mani- 
fest that  the  President  was  not  strong  enough  to 
hold  down  the  selfish  factions  who  saw  in  the  gen- 
eral dissatisfaction  and  financial  distress  only  an  op- 
portunity to  get  into  office  by  force  of  arms. 

Congress  remained  neutral  until  it  became  evident 
that  no  accommodation  could  be  reached  between 
the  President  and  his  opponents,  and  that  the  lat- 
ter would  press  on  to  overthrowing  the  government 
and  probably  precipitate  a  serious  civil  war.  In  this 
crisis,  however,  the  majority  agreed  to  laws  which 
authorised  armed  Federal  intervention  in  the  troubles 
in  San  Luiz  and  Santa  Fe.  But  in  September  the 
national  troops  themselves  showed  symptoms  of 
mutiny  and  by  this  time  most  of  the  provinces 
were  convulsed  by  revolutionary  movements  which 
the  central  government  was  manifestly  not  strong 
enough  to  suppress  or  control. 

On  September  25th,  General  Roca  took  command 
of  the  army;  the  most  dangerous  radical  leaders  in 
Buenos  Aires  were  thrown  into  prison ;  and  on  Oc- 
tober 1st  he  captured  Rosario,  the  second  city  of  the 


1 56  ARGENTINA 

Republic,  and  the  chief  place  in  Santa  F^,  which 
for  months  had  been  in  the  hands  of  revolutionists. 
This  was  a  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  troubles 
that  menaced  public  order.  Six  million  dollars  had 
been  expended  by  the  government  in  fruitless 
marchings  to  and  fro  of  troops,  but  no  serious  harm 
had  been  done.  The  scene  of  the  contest  between 
the  ambitious  factions  was  transferred  to  Congress, 
the  Cabinet,  and  the  Press.  Throughout  1893  and 
1894  the  President  struggled  with  his  factional  and 
financial  difficulties,  and  gradually  lost  control  of 
Congress  and  prestige  in  the  country. 

Meanwhile,  commercial  liquidation  was  proceed- 
ing normally  and,  as  always,  painfully.  The  great 
Provincial  Mortgage  Bank,  through  the  agency  of 
which  a  vast  amount  of  the  land  scrip  had  been  is- 
sued in  the  Celman  days,  was  granted  a  moratorium 
for  five  years.  Other  actual  bankruptcies  were 
legally  admitted  and  enforced.  The  mortgage  scrip 
payable  in  gold  was  replaced  by  currency  obliga- 
tions. The  government  had  proved  unequal  to  the 
task  of  balancing  its  own  receipts  and  expenses. 
Taxes  were  increased  until  rebellion  seemed  immi- 
nent, but  expenditures  still  outran  them.  The  de- 
ficits mounted  in  spite  of  the  efforts  toward  economy 
and  the  returning  prosperity  of  the  business  world. 
The  boundary  dispute  with  Chile  had  assumed  a 
threatening  aspect ;  war  seemed  imminent,  and  the 
military  and  naval  estimates  were  largely  increased. 
In  January,  1895,  President  Saenz  Pena  called  an 
extra  session  of  Congress  to  vote  supplies  for  the 
expected  war  with  Chile  and  to  consider  the  financial 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  I  57 

proposals  of  the  government.  Congress  demanded 
that  poHtical  grievances  should  be  redressed.  The 
President  had  been  persecuting  the  army  officers 
who  had  been  implicated  in  the  revolutionary  dis- 
turbances, and  a  vast  majority  of  Congress  insisted 
thrt  a  complete  amnesty  be  granted  to  all  political 
offenders.  When  the  President  refused,  the  Cabinet 
resigned  in  a  body  and  Congress  and  the  opposition 
brought  every  pressure  to  bear.  It  was  soon  evi- 
dent that  Congress  must  win,  and  on  January  22, 
1895,  the  President  resigned. 

The  Vice-President,  Doctor  Uriburu,  succeeded 
for  the  unexpired  period  of  three  years,  during 
which  little  progress  was  made  toward  a  settlement 
of  the  nation's  financial  difficulties.  Symptoms  of 
renewed  extravagance  appeared.  In  1897,  the  issu- 
ance of  $10,000,000  of  mortgage  scrip  was  authorised, 
and  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  icceived  permission 
to  borrow  $5,000,000.  Work  on  the  great  docks 
of  Buenos  Aires,  costing  $35,000,000,  was  pushed 
to  completion,  and  in  February  the  paper  dollars 
dropped  back  to  33  cents,  while  the  deficit  for  the 
year  was  over  $20,000,000. 

In  July,  1897,  General  Roca  was  nominated  for 
the  Presidency  by  the  Convention  of  the  National 
party,  with  Dr.  Pellegrini  in  the  chair.  There  was 
no  real  opposition  to  his  election.  Again  and  again 
during  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  had  proved  himself 
able  to  cope  with  the  most  difficult  situations  which 
had  arisen  in  Argentine  affairs.  In  1890,  his  firm- 
ness and  adroitness  had  saved  the  country  from  the 
agony  of  a  useless  political  upheaval  after  the  failure 


158  ARGENTmA 

of  the  Celman  administration.  During  the  anxious 
months  that  followed  the  panic,  his  generosity  had 
secured  a  co-operation  of  the  moderates  of  Buenos 
Aires  with  his  own  immediate  followers  in  holding 
back  the  Radicals  and  revolutionists  in  check.  Dur- 
ing the  critical  year  of  1892,  the  outbreaks  against 
the  Saenz  Pena  administration  increased  in  violence 
until  it  seemed  as  if  the  country  would  be  convulsed 
with  a  serious  civil  war,  but  when  Roca  stepped  in 
the  tide  of  disorganisation  turned,  and  his  firm  hand 
re-established  the  authority  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment. His  prestige  and  his  personality  enabled  him 
to  count  upon  an  obedience  from  the  chiefs  of  the 
provincial  factions  which  was  of  inestimable  value. 
He  possessed  those  rare  and  indispensable  qualities 
which  make  a  man  a  centre  around  which  other  men 
can  rally.  He  had  built  up  the  one  really  national 
party  in  the  country  and  was  faithful  to  his  friends 
and  his  adherents,  but  sufficiently  broad-minded  to 
combine  with  other  parties  when  the  interests  of  the 
whole  country  demanded  it. 

General  Roca  entered  upon  his  second  presidential 
term  in  the  beginning  of  1898.  One  of  his  first  acts 
was  to  intervene  in  Buenos  Aires  province  and  put 
an  end  to  a  deadlock  between  the  governor  and  the 
Provincial  Assembly.  The  boundary  dispute  with 
Chile,  a  question  which,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  de- 
sire of  both  governments  for  peace,  might  at  any 
time  precipitate  a  ruinous  war,  was  submitted  for 
settlement  by  arbitration.  W.  J.  Buchanan,  the 
United  States  Minister  at  Buenos  Aires,  named  as 
arbitrator    for    the    northern    frontier,    quickly    an- 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE 


159 


nounced  a  decision  which  was  promptly  accepted  by 
both  parties.  The  more  complicated  southern  fron- 
tier could  not  so  easily  be  prepared  for  submission; 
a  serious  misunderstanding  arose,  and  both  coun- 
tries felt  compelled  to  spend  large  sums  for  arm- 
aments   which    they    knew    they    could    ill    afford. 


A   RIVER    ROAD    IN    AKtiKNTlNA. 
[From  a  lithogr.iph.] 


Happily,  a  decision  was  at  last  rendered  in  1902. 
No  question  now  remains  open  which  is  likely  to 
involve  the  external  peace  of  Argentina. 

Internal  peace  has  not  been  menaced  during  Gen- 
eral Roca's  term.  The  commercial  situation  of  the 
country  has  vastly  improved.  Immigration,  which 
had  largely  ceased  after  1890,  has  again  risen  to 
over  a  hundred  thousand  a  year.  Wheat  exports 
rose  from  4,000,000  bushels  in  1897  to  61,000,000 
in    IQOO.      The  total  exports  in    1899  were  $185,- 


l6o  ARGENTINA 

000,000,  twice  as  great  per  capita  as  the  record 
export  of  the  United  States.  There  have  been  no 
issues  of  paper  money,  and  the  value  of  the  cur- 
rency has  risen  to  forty  cents.  The  government  has 
established  a  new  artificial  par  at  a  little  more  than 
this  sum,  and  has  begun  accumulating  a  gold  reserve. 
A  resumption  of  specie  payments  is  soon  expected. 

Nevertheless  the  chief  difficulties  and  preoccupa- 
tions of  the  Roca  administration  have  been  with 
financial  questions.  A  deficit  of  $70,000,000  had 
accumulated  in  the  few  years  before  1898,  and  the  in- 
terest on  the  immense  public  debt  makes  an  equilib- 
riumin  the  budget  almost  impossible.  Many  of  the 
provincial  governments  have  defaulted,  and  the 
national  government  has  had  to  carry  their  burdens 
in  addition  to  its  own,  to  satisfy  clamorous  foreign 
creditors.  In  1901  it  was  proposed  to  unify  the  debt, 
refunding  the  whole  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest,  and 
specifically  pledging  certain  sources  of  public  income. 
This  plan  had  the  approval  of  the  government,  but 
the  national  pride  was  touched  by  the  latter  feature. 
The  populace  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  giving  a 
sort  of  mortgage  on  the  country.  The  passage  of 
the  bill  by  Congress  was  met  with  so  many  demon- 
strations of  popular  disapproval  that  it  was  aban- 
doned. This  change  of  front  was  accompanied  by 
the  formation  of  an  alliance  between  the  followers 
of  General  Mitre  and  those  of  General  Roca. 

The  industrial  impetus  already  acquired  by  the 
Argentine  Republic  is  sufficient  to  carry  it  over  all 
obstacles,  and  it  seems  assured  that  there  will  be  a 
rapid  settlement  of  the  whole  of  this  immense  and 


THE  MODERN  ARGENTINE  l6l 

fertile  plain.  Here  nature  has  done  ev^erything  to 
make  communication  easy,  and  a  temperate  climate 
insures  crops  suited  to  modern  European  civilisa- 
tion. Two  grave  perils  have  so  far  been  encountered 
— namely,  a  tendency  toward  political  disintegration 
and  an  abuse  of  the  taxing  power.  The  former  is 
now  remote,  for  since  the  railways  began  to  concen- 
trate wealth  and  influence  at  Buenos  Aires,  and  to 
destroy  the  prestige  and  political  power  of  the  pro- 
vincial capitals,  the  national  structure  built  by  the 
patriots  of  1853  has  stood  firmer  each  year. 

The  Argentine  has  had  a  bitter  lesson  of  the  evils 
of  governmental  extravagance,  and  still  groans  under 
the  burden  of  a  debt  which  seems  disproportionately 
heavy,  but  the  growth  of  population  and  wealth  will 
soon  overtake  it,  and  the  very  difficulties  of  meeting 
interest  are  the  cause  of  an  economy  in  administra- 
tion, of  which  the  good  effects  will  be  felt  long  after 
the  debt  itself  has  been  reduced  to  a  reasonable  per 
capita.  A  nation  is  in  the  process  of  formation 
in  the  Plate  valley  whose  material  greatness  is  cer- 
tain, and  whose  moral  and  intellectual  characteristics 
will  have  the  widest  influence  on  the  rest  of  South 
America. 

VOL.  I.— II. 


PARAGUAY 


105 


CHAPTER   I 


PARAGUAY    UNTIL    1632 


THE  beginnings  of  the  settlements  in  Paraguay 
have  been  sketched  in  the  introductory  chap- 
ter on  the  discoveries  and  conquest.  In  1526, 
Cabot,  searching  to  find  a  route  to  the  gold  and 
silver  mines  of  the  centre  of  the  continent,  pene- 
trated as  far  as  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Asun- 
cion. He  had  already,  in  the  exploration  of  the 
Upper  Parana,  skirted  the  southern  and  eastern 
boundary  of  what  has  since  become  the  country  of 
Paraguay.  Ten  years  later  the  exhausted  and  dis- 
couraged remnants  of  Mendoza's  great  expedition 
sought  rest  and  refuge  among  the  peaceful  agricul- 
tural tribes  of  this  region.  Under  Domingos  Irala, 
these  six  hundred  surviving  Spanish  adventurers 
founded  Asuncion  in  1536,  the  first  settlement  of 
the  valley  of  the  Plate.  They  reduced  the  Indians 
to  a  mild  slavery,  compelling  them  to  build  houses, 
perform  menial  services,  and  cultivate  the  soil.  The 
country  was  divided  into  great  tracts  called  "en- 
comiendas,"  which,  with  the  Indians  that  inhabited 
them,    were   distributed  among  the  settlers.     Few 

165 


1 66  pakaguay 

women  had  been  able  to  follow  Mendoza's  expedi- 
tion, so  the  Spaniards  of  Asuncion  took  wives  from 
among  the  Indians.  Subsequent  immigration  was 
small,  and  the  proportion  of  Spanish  blood  has 
always  been  inconsiderable,  compared  with  the 
number  of  aborigines.  The  children  of  the  mar- 
riages between  the  Spanish  conquerors  and  Indian 
women  were  proud  of  their  white  descent.  The 
superior  strain  of  blood  easily  dominated,  and  the 
mixed  Paraguayan  Creoles  became  Spaniards  to  all 
intents  and  purposes.  Spaniards  and  Creoles,  how- 
ever, learned  the  Indian  language;  Guarany  rather 
than  Spanish  became,  and  has  remained,  the  most 
usual  method  of  communication. 

The  Spaniards  of  Asuncion  were  turbulent  and 
disinclined  to  submit  to  authority.  They  paid  scant 
respect  to  the  adelantados,  whom  the  Castilian  king 
sent  out  one  after  another  as  feudal  proprietors. 
Until  his  death  Irala  was  the  most  influential  man 
in  the  colony,  but  his  power  rested  on  his  own 
energy  and  capacity,  and  on  the  fear  and  respect  in 
which  he  was  held  by  his  companions,  more  than  on 
the  royal  commission  that  finally  could  not  be  with- 
held from  him. 

Across  the  river  from  Asuncion  stretched  away  to 
the  west  the  vast  and  swampy  plains  of  the  great 
Chaco.  It  was  inhabited  by  wandering  tribes  of 
Indians  whom  the  Spaniards  could  not  subdue. 
They  fled  before  the  expeditions  like  scared  wild 
beasts,  only  to  turn  and  mercilessly  massacre  every 
man  when  a  chance  was  offered  for  ambush  or  sur- 
prise.    To  the  east  of  the  Paraguay  River  the  coun- 


km'i^m 


,.ij 


l68  PARAGUAY 

try  was  dry,  rolling,  and  extremely  fertile.  Though 
covered  with  magnificent  forests  it  was  easily  pene- 
trable all  the  way  across  to  the  Parana.  Its  inhabit- 
ants were  the  docile  Guaranies,  who  knew  something 
of  agriculture  and  in  whose  villages  considerable 
stores  of  food  were  to  be  found.  The  population 
was  dense  for  savages,  but  they  had  no  political  or 
military  organisation.  Divided  into  small  tribes 
which  did  not  co-operate,  they  rendered  little  re- 
spect or  obedience  to  their  chiefs.  Under  these 
conditions  Spanish  authority  rapidly  spread  over 
central  and  southern  Paraguay.  Before  Irala  died, 
in  1557,  the  settlers  had  reached  the  Parana  on  the 
western  boundary  and  founded  settlements  nearly 
as  far  north  as  the  Grand  Cataract. 

Shortly  afterwards,  the  Creoles  of  Asuncion  be- 
gan their  expeditions  to  the  South.  By  1580  they 
controlled  the  Parana  River  from  its  confluence  with 
the  Paraguay  to  the  ocean,  had  established  Santa 
Fe  and  Buenos  Aires  on  its  right  bank,  and  opened 
up  the  southern  pampa.  The  pastoral  provinces  on 
the  Lower  Parana  were  slowly  peopled.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  energetic  Paraguayan  Creoles  pre- 
ferred the  semi-nomadic  life  of  the  plains  to  indo- 
lence among  their  Indian  slaves  in  the  tropical  forests 
of  Paraguay,  The  two  regions  were  distinct  in  cli- 
mate, habits  of  life,  social  and  industrial  organisa- 
tion.  They  became  separated  in  interests  and  soon 
were  to  be  divided  politically.  Though,  until  1619, 
the  whole  province  continued  to  bear  the  name  of 
Paraguay,  the  usual  residence  of  the  governor  was 
Buenos  Aires.     Asuncion   was  often   forced  to  be 


PARAGUA  Y   UNTIL    1632  169 

content  with  a  lieutenant-governor,  and  was  fast 
relegated  to  the  position  of  a  neglected  and  isolated 
district. 

In  the  days  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  Franciscan 
monks  were  the  priests  who  most  often  accompanied 
the  expeditions,  and  they  took  the  most  prominent 
part  in  the  earliest  establishment  of  religion.  The 
members  of  this  Order,  however,  with  a  few  notable 
exceptions,  took  no  special  interest  in  the  evangel- 
isation of  the  aborigines.  On  the  contrary,  they 
were  as  fierce  as  the  soldiers  themselves  in  their 
cruelties  to  the  poor  Indians.  The  shouts  of  a 
Franciscan  monk  set  on  Pizarro's  ruffians  to  the 
slaughter  of  the  Incas  that  surrounded  Atahualpa. 
Those  that  came  to  Paraguay  preferred  to  live  in 
the  towns,  and  their  conduct  toward  the  Indians 
differed  little  from  that  of  the  lay  Spaniards.  It 
was  the  genius  of  Ignatius  Loyola  that  conceived 
and  perfected  a  machine  able  to  carry  Christianity 
and  civilisation  to  these  remote  and  inaccessible 
peoples  and  regions.  Within  a  few  years  after  its 
foundation,  the  Society  of  Jesus  turned  its  attention 
to  the  evangelisation  of  South  America;  in  1550  the 
Jesuit  Fathers  began  their  work  in  Brazil.  Their  suc- 
cesses and  failures  in  that  country  had  little  relation 
with  their  work  in  Spanish  South  America.  It  is  curi- 
ous, however,  that  their  most  successful  early  work 
in  Brazil  should  have  been  done  in  Sao  Paulo,  on  the 
extreme  eastern  border  of  the  wide  plateau  which 
drains  to  the  west  into  the  Parana.  For  a  decade 
or  two  after  1550,  they  laboured  hard  to  gather  the 
Indians  of  that  region  into  villages,  to  teach  them 


I/O  PARAGUAY 

Christianity,  and  protect  them  against  the  tyrannies 
and  exactions  of  the  Portuguese  settlers.  The  con- 
test was  unequal;  the  Jesuits  were  not  long  able  to 
prevent  the  enslavement  of  their  proselytes.  The 
Paulistas  destroyed  the  Jesuit  missions  in  their 
neighbourhood  and  became  the  most  expert  in  In- 
dian warfare  and  the  most  terrible  foes  of  the  Jesuit 
system  of  all  the  colonists  of  South  America.  Their 
determined  opposition  was  the  most  potent  cause 
in  preventing  the  subjection  of  South  America  to  a 
theocratic  system  of  government. 

About  1586  the  Jesuit  Fathers  entered  Paraguay 
for  the  purpose  of  beginning  the  evangelisation  of 
the  Indians  of  the  Plate  valley.  They  established 
a  school  in  Asuncion  and  pushed  out  on  foot  into 
the  remoter  districts.  Their  success  was  phenomenal. 
They  spared  no  pains  to  learn  the  language  of  the 
savages  so  that  they  might  teach  them  in  their  own 
tongue.  They  approached  them  with  kindness  and 
benevolence  showing  in  every  gesture.  They  availed 
themselves  of  the  Indians'  love  of  bright  colours  and 
showy  processions.  They  went  unarmed  and  alone, 
offering  useful  and  attractive  presents,  conforming 
to  savage  customs  and  prejudices,  and  imposing  on 
the  vivid  savage  imagination  with  the  pomp  of 
Catholic  worship.  They  taught  their  savage  pupils 
how  to  cultivate  the  ground  to  get  greater  results, 
how  to  save  themselves  unnecessary  labour,  and  how 
to  live  comfortably.  They  persuaded  them  to 
gather  into  towns,  where  they  built  comfortable 
houses  and  tight  warehouses,  while  the  men  culti- 
vated the  soil  and  the  women  spun  and  wove  cotton. 


Paraguay  until  1632  t;?! 

The  Jesuits  came  almost  immediately  into  con- 
flict with  the  interests  of  the  Spanish  colonists. 
They  were  welcomed  at  first,  because  they  were  ex- 
pected to  lend  themselves  to  the  enslavement  of  the 
Indians.  When  their  real  purposes  were  discovered 
feeling  against  them  rose  high.  The  Creoles  clearly 
saw  that  it  was  going  to  be  far  more  difficult  to  ex- 
tend their  power  over  the  Indians  gathered  to- 
gether in  villages  under  Jesuit  protection  than  over 
unorganised  and  friendless  bands  of  unconverted 
savages. 

Before  1610  the  number  of  Jesuits  that  had  come 
to  Paraguay  was  very  small.  Among  the  first  was 
the  Father  named  Thomas  Fields,  a  Scotchman. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Jesuits*  were  recruited  from 
all  the  nations  of  Europe  and  under  their  military 
system  had  to  go  wherever  they  might  be  sent. 
English,  Irish,  and  German  names,  as  well  as  Span- 
ish, are  to  be  found  in  the  lists  of  Jesuits  who 
laboured  in  Paraguay. 

In  1608  Philip  III.  of  Spain  attended  to  the  com- 
plaints that  came  to  him  through  the  powerful  chiefs 
of  the  Order  of  the  indifference  and  opposition 
shown  by  the  settlers  and  colonial  authorities,  and 
gave  his  royal  and  official  sanction  to  the  Jesuit 
conversion  of  the  Indians  along  the  Upper  Parana. 
By  this  time  the  Fathers  had  penetrated  across  to 
the  Parana  and  had  followed  up  that  stream  far 
north  of  the  Grand  Cataract  in  latitude  24°,  which 
marks  the  northern  boundary  of  Paraguay  proper. 
It  is  hard  to  understand  how  they  overcame  the 
difficulties  of  travelling.      To  this  day  it  is  well-nigh 


172  PARAGUAY 

impossible  to  reach  the  Grand  Cataract,  and  years 
pass  without  that  wonder  of  nature's  being  seen  by 
the  eyes  of  civilised  man.  No  part  of  the  world, 
outside  the  Arctic  regions,  is  less  accessible  than  the 
Parand  above  the  Grand  Cataract.  Yet  these  heroic 
priests  made  that  region  the  principal  theatre  of 
their  operations  in  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  territory  is  now  all  Brazilian, — the 
boundaries  of  that  republic  extend  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  Parana  south  nearly  to  the  twenty-sixth  de- 
gree and  on  the  west  bank  to  the  twenty-fourth. 
The  rivers  Paranapanema  and  Ivahy  are  great 
tributaries  coming  down  from  the  east  between  the 
twenty-second  and  twenty-third  degrees,  and  drain- 
ing a  vast  extent  of  the  plateau  that  extends  to  the 
Brazilian  coast  mountains  between  Curitiba  and  Sao 
Paulo,  and  on  their  banks  the  Jesuits  established 
their  principal  missions. 

In  those  days  there  were  no  clearly  defined  bound- 
aries between  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  domin- 
ions. From  1580  to  1640  the  king  of  Spain  was 
also  monarch  of  Portugal.  The  Jesuits  held  his 
royal  letters  patent  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians 
of  the  province  of  Guayra — the  name  which  this  re- 
mote region  bore.  They  had  no  reason  to  anticipate 
that  they  would  be  accused  of  being  invaders  of 
Portuguese  territory,  or  that  they  would  be  inter- 
fered with  by  any  Portuguese  subjects  of  the  Spanish 
Crown.  The  nearest  Portuguese  settlement  was  at 
Sao  Paulo,  from  which  Guayra  could  be  reached 
only  by  the  long  and  tedious  descent  of  the  Tiete 
River  to  its  confluence  with  the  Parana,  and  thence 


PARAGUAY   UNTIL    1 63 2  1/3 

down  that  river  to  the  Ivahy.  Months  would  be 
necessary  to  make  such  a  journey,  great  difficulties 
encountered  with  waterfalls  and  rapids,  and  great 
privations  from  want  of  food  in  the  vast  uninhabited 
regions  on  the  route. 

The  first  Jesuits  to  arrive  after  the  granting  of 
formal  authorisation  by  the  Spanish  king  were  two 
Italians.  They  left  Asuncion  October  10,  1609,  and 
it  took  them  five  months  of  incessant  travelling  to 
reach  the  Paranapanema.  The  work  already  done 
there  by  the  earlier  Fathers  had  borne  some  fruit. 
The  Indians  were  prepared  for  the  coming  of  the  new 
missionaries  and  readily  gathered  into  the  towns 
which  they  founded  in  rapid  succession.  For  the 
first  few  years  all  went  well,  and  within  a  very  short 
time  they  claimed  to  have  at  least  forty  thousand 
souls  under  their  guidance.  In  1614  there  were  119 
Jesuits  in  Paraguay  and  Guayra,  and  the  work 
of  evangelising  and  reducing  to  obedience  the 
whole  Guarany  population  of  the  Parana  valley 
went  on  apace.  For  twenty  years  these  Guayra 
missions  spread  and  prospered,  while  to  the  east  and 
south  the  Jesuits  acquired  more  and  more  influence 
with  the  Indians  in  Paraguay  proper,  and  more  and 
more  hemmed  in  the  Creoles  of  Asuncion. 

In  1629  a  thunderbolt  burst  upon  Guayra  out  of 
a  clear  sky.  The  Portuguese  from  Sao  Paulo  ap- 
peared before  the  Mission  of  San  Antonio  and  de- 
stroyed it  utterly,  burning  the  church  and  houses 
and  driving  off  the  Indians  as  slaves.  Other  mis- 
sions shortly  suffered  the  same  fate,  and  within  the 
short   space   of   three   years   the    towns    had   been 


174  PARAGUAY 

sacked,  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  region  carried 
off  or  killed,  and  the  remnants  had  fled  down  the 
river  under  the  leadership  of  the  Fathers.  The 
Paulistas  were  animated  by  motives,  some  good, 
some  bad.  Primarily  they  wished  to  capture  slaves. 
They  hated  the  Jesuits  and  had  themselves  suffered 
from  the  latter's  system  of  segregating  the  abo- 
rigines. Only  a  few  decades  before,  their  fathers 
had  destroyed  the  Jesuit  missions  near  Sao  Paulo, 
and  they  were  determined  not  to  permit  themselves 
to  be  hemmed  in  and  crowded  out  by  Indians  ruled 
and  protected  by  Jesuits.  They  believed  in  the  doc- 
trine of  "Brazil  for  the  White  Brazilians,"  and  they 
regarded  the  Jesuits  and  their  neophytes  as  natural 
enemies  and  fair  prey.  The  sentiment  of  nationality 
also  animated  them.  As  descendants  of  Portuguese 
they  hated  the  Spaniards  and  their  rule.  Their  al- 
legiance to  the  Spanish  dynasty  that  had  usurped 
the  crown  of  Portugal  sat  lightly.  The  Jesuits  came 
by  way  of  Asuncion,  their  communications  were 
with  the  Spanish  authorities,  and  most  of  them  were 
Spaniards.  The  Paulistas,  as  Portuguese,  viewed 
with  alarm  a  rapid  spread  of  Spanish  ecclesiastics 
up  the  Parana  valley,  which  threatened  soon  to 
reach  their  own  neighbourhood.  Avarice,  love  of 
adventure,  race  pride,  patriotism,  hatred  of  priestly 
domination,  all  co-operated  to  push  them  on  to  un- 
dertaking these  memorable  expeditions. 

The  great  extension  of  the  Jesuits  over  the  north- 
ern and  eastern  regions  of  the  Parana  valley  oc- 
curred during  the  period  when  Hernandarias  was 
the  dominant  figure  of  the  Plate.     Creole  though  he 


PARAGUAY   UNTIL    16^2  I75 

was,  this  remarkable  man  was  a  friend  to  the  Indian 
and  to  the  missionary  work  of  the  Jesuits.  His  aid 
and  encouragement  in  1609  were  essential  to  the 
latter's  success,  for  he  might  easily  have  nullified  the 
effect  of  the  royal  permission  to  evangelise  Guayra, 
a  formal  document  that  would  have  been  of  little 
value  against  the  delays  and  excuses  of  an  unwilling 
governor  aided  by  the  jealous  people.  After  his 
first  term  as  governor  at  Buenos  Aires,  the  Spanish 
government  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  more 
flagrant  of  the  abuses  practised  against  the  savages 
and  created  the  oflfice  of ' '  Protector  of  the  Indians. 
Hernandarias  was  named  to  fill  it,  and  carried  out  his 
instructions  in  a  moderate  spirit.  He  understood 
the  country  and  the  situation  of  the  colony  well, 
and  did  not  undertake  to  abolish  Indian  slavery.  In 
that  tropical  climate  the  whites  will  not  labour  in 
the  fields  so  long  as  there  are  Indians  who  can  be 
forced  to  work,  and  the  Spaniards  still  regarded  the 
Indian  as  little  better  than  an  animal. 

On  the  other  hand,  Hernandarias  was  too  intelli- 
gent not  to  see  that  there  must  be  restraints  on  the 
cruelties  and  exactions  of  the  Creoles  if  the  Indians 
of  Paraguay  were  to  be  saved  from  the  extermina- 
tion that  had  been  the  fate  of  the  Haytians  a  cent- 
ury before.  The  outcome  was,  that  though  a  new 
code  of  laws  was  promulgated  by  the  impracticable 
Spanish  king,  which  forbade  any  further  enslavement 
of  the  aborigines,  its  provisions  were  largely  disre- 
garded. At  the  same  time,  however,  the  Indians 
acquired  a  legal  status,  and  their  condition  was  grad- 
ually improved  until  it  became  not  mugh  worse  than 


176  PARAGUA  Y 

that  of  the  contemporaneous  European  peasantry. 
The  Jesuits  were  guaranteed  against  interference 
and  allowed  to  go  out  into  the  remoter  wilderness 
and  give  to  the  yet  unslaved  inhabitants  the  invalu- 
able protection  of  membership  in  their  missions. 

In  1619  the  natural  and  commercial  division  be- 
tween Paraguay  proper  and  the  rest  of  the  province 
was  officially  recognised.  The  region  between  the 
Paraguay  and  the  Parana  rivers  was  made  a  separate 
province,  directly  dependent  upon  the  Viceroy  at 
Lima  and  the  Audiencia  at  Charcas  in  Bolivia.  It 
included  officially  the  Jesuit  missions  south-east  of 
the  Parana  as  well  as  the  present  territory  of  Para- 
guay. 

When  the  Paulistas  began  their  terrible  attacks  on 
the  Guayra  missions  in  1629,  the  governor  of  Para- 
guay refused  to  send  any  assistance  to  the  Jesuits. 
The  latter  charged  him  with  a  corrupt  understanding 
with  the  invaders,  by  which  he  was  to  share  in  the 
profits  of  the  slaves  sold.  The  Order  had  agreed 
with  the  Spanish  government  not  to  put  any  arms 
into  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  so  the  latter  were  de- 
fenceless against  the  Paulistas,  who  attacked  musket 
in  hand.  The  Creoles  and  Spaniards  in  Asuncion 
resented  more  and  more  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  viewed  with  ill-concealed  satisfaction 
the  misfortunes  that  now  overwhelmed  the  priests. 
The  governor,  in  declining  to  send  help,  was  only 
carrying  out  the  wishes  of  the  people  around  him. 
Had  the  number  of  whites  in  Paraguay  not  been  so 
very  small  the  Jesuits  might  have  been  expelled  as 
they  were  in  Sao  Paulo. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   JESUIT    REPUBLIC    AND   COLONIAL  PARAGUAY 

WE  have  no  accounts  of  the  Jesuit  missions  in 
Guayra,  or  of  the  tragedy  of  their  destruc- 
tion, except  those  that  were  written  by  the  Fathers 
themselves.  These  are  filled  with  manifest  exag- 
gerations and  marred  by  omissions  which  we  have 
few  means  of  correcting.  Nevertheless,  the  bold 
outlines  of  a  story  that  for  bravery,  pathos,  and  de- 
votion rivals  any  ever  told  are  clear  and  indisputable. 
Within  such  a  short  period  as  twenty  years  the 
Jesuits  had  not  succeeded  in  training  the  Guayrd 
Indians  to  any  very  high  degree  of  civilisation. 
They  complain  that  the  Indians  were  still  prone  to 
return  to  the  worship  of  their  devils.  Nevertheless, 
the  massive  walls  of  churches  which  have  survived 
the  devastation  wrought  by  three  centuries  of  tropi- 
cal rains  bear  witness  that  the  Jesuits  had  gathered 
together  a  multitude  of  people  and  had  taught  them 
a  measure  of  skilled  labour. 

Of  the  completeness  of  the  victory  of  the  Paulistas 
there  is  no  doubt.  Within  three  years,  tens  of 
thousands  of  Indians  were  carried  off  to  Sao  Paulo, 

VOL.  I. — 12. 


178  PAJiAGUAY 

iand  hardly  a  town  was  left  standing  in  the  province 
jof  Guayra.  Father  Montoya,  chief  Jesuit,  has  left 
an  account  of  the  Hegira  which  he  led  down  the 
river.  Though  he  is  silent  as  to  the  part  he  took 
himself,  it  is  hard  to  read  his  pages  and  not  give  him 
a  place  among  the  world's  great  heroes.  Twelve 
thousand  Indians  of  every  sex  and  age  assembled 
on  the  Paranapanema  with  the  few  belongings 
which  they  had  been  able  to  bring  from  the  homes 
that  they  were  forced  to  abandon.  The  Paulistas 
were  daily  expected  to  return,  and  the  only  hope  of 
escape  was  to  float  down  the  river  and  get  beyond 
the  Grand  Cataract  of  the  Parana.  The  journey  to 
the  beginning  of  the  falls  was  made  without  any 
great  losses;  there  the  difificulties  began.  Ninety 
miles  of  falls  and  rapids  intervene  between  navigable 
water  above  and  below  the  Grand  Cataract.  Across 
the  river  valley  extends  a  mountain  chain  with 
slopes  rugg.ed  and  covered  with  dense  vegetation. 
The  river  divides  into  various  channels,  and  the  sides 
of  the  gorges  are  clothed  in  cane-brakes  and  tangled 
forests  through  which  a  path  had  to  be  cut  with 
machetes.  These  poor  Jesuits  and  their  thousands 
of  scared,  patient  Indians  had  no  boats  awaiting 
them  at  the  foot  of  the  falls,  so  they  had  to  con- 
tinue their  dreary  passage  through  the  gorges  and 
cane-brakes,  where  wild  Indians  lay  in  ambush  with 
poisoned  arrows,  until  at  last  a  place  was  reached 
where  canoes  could  be  built.  Still  they  struggled 
on,  the  indomitable  Jesuits  taking  every  precaution. 
Though  out  of  immediate  danger  from  the  Paulistas 
when  they  had  passed  the  cataract,  the  Spaniards  on 


l80  PARAGUAY 

the  right  bank  below  were  hardly  less  to  be  feared. 
They  were  waiting  on  the  shore  of  the  Parand  for 
news  of  the  fugitives  in  order  to  pounce  on  them  and 
make  a  rich  haul  of  slaves.  The  provisions  were 
exhausted,  but  the  Jesuits  dared  not  apply  for  help 
to  the  Creoles.  Fever  broke  out  and,  sick  and  starv- 
ing, the  devoted  Jesuits  and  their  uncomplaining 
followers  worked  away  on  their  boats  and  rafts. 
At  last  they  got  them  ready,  and,  slipping  past  the 
Spanish  settlements  in  the  night,  they  finally  reached 
some  small  Jesuit  missions  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Iguassu,  five  hundred  miles  from  their  starting-point. 

The  Jesuits  resolved  to  evacuate  Guayra  com- 
pletely and  to  build  up  their  power  anew  in  the 
country  between  the  Parana  and  the  Uruguay. 
Within  the  next  few  years  they  had  occupied  the 
country  that  is  now  the  Argentine  Territory  of  the 
missions.  This  tract  lay  directly  across  the  Parand, 
from  that  part  of  Paraguay  proper  in  which  the 
Jesuits  were  most  powerful,  to  the  other  side  of 
the  Uruguay,  where  was  a  fertile  territory  which 
proved  an  excellent  field  for  the  extension  of  the 
settlement.  Before  many  years  these  missions 
stretched  in  a  broad  band  from  the  centre  of  Para- 
guay three  hundred  miles  to  the  south-east ;  they 
dominated  southern  Paraguay  and  half  the  present 
Brazilian  state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  with  the 
country  that  lies  between,  while  their  towns  lined 
both  banks  of  the  Upper  Uruguay  and  the  Middle 
Parana,  cutting  off  the  Creoles  from  extending  their 
settlements  up  either  of  these  great  rivers. 

Now  that  the  priests  had  concentrated  their  forces 


THE  JESUIT  REPUBLIC  l8l 

SO  near,  the  alarm  of  the  Creoles  became  acute. 
The  Jesuits  managed  to  obtain  the  dismissal  of  the 
governor  who  had  refused  to  send  them  aid  when 
they  were  attacked  by  the  Paulistas  and  were  driven 
from  Guayra,  but  his  successor  also  became  a  parti- 
san of  the  Creoles  as  soon  as  he  reached  Asuncion. 
He  visited  the  missions  near  the  river  Parana  and 
ordered  that  they  be  secularised  on  the  ground  that 
these  regions  had  already  been  subjected  by  Spanish 
arms  before  its  occupation  by  the  priests.  But  the 
Jesuits  were  good  lawyers  and  had  powerful  friends 
at  every  Court,  so  the  governor  was  forced  to  re- 
verse his  action. 

The  next  governor  helped  to  make  the  Jesuits 
secure  from  Paulista  interference  below  the  Grand 
Cataract,  by  defeating  an  important  expedition 
which  had  reached  the  new  missions.  The  Paulistas 
did  not  confine  their  aggressions  to  the  missions, 
but  alarmed  the  Spanish  Creoles  themselves  by  pen- 
etrating west  of  the  Parana  into  Paraguay  proper. 
Even  Asuncion  did  not  feel  safe  for  a  time.  The 
Jesuits  had  now  begun  to  arm  and  drill  the  Indians. 
Though  the  Paulistas  made  expeditions  from  time 
to  time,  and  the  Spanish  and  Jesuit  frontier  settle- 
ments were  frequently  aroused  by  the  news  of  a 
bloody  raid  and  of  the  rapid  depredations  of  a  band 
of  these  dreaded  marauders,  there  was  never  again 
such  wholesale  destruction  as  had  taken  place  in 
Guayra.  The  frontiers  of  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese peoples  on  the  Parana  remain  to  this  day 
substantially  as  they  were  fixed  by  the  Paulista 
expeditions  of  1630  to  1640. 


l82  PARAGUAY 

In  their  conflict  with  tlie  Jesuits,  the  Creoles 
shortly  received  a  valuable  reinforcement  in  Bishop 
Cardenas,  a  very  able  and  energetic  prelate,  and  a 
man  gifted  as  a  ruler  and  statesman.  Born  in  the 
city  of  Charcas,  on  the  Bolivian  plateau,  he  was  a 
Creole  of  the  Creoles.  He  became  a  great  mission- 
ary and  evangelist  throughout  Upper  Peru  and 
Tucuman,  acquiring  wonderful  fame  and  popularity 
by  his  eloquence.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  Creole,  he  was  immensely  popular  among  the  In- 
dians, and  seems  to  have  been  a  natural  leader  of 
both  branches  of  the  native  population.  He  bitterly 
hated  the  Jesuits.  As  a  member  of  the  rival  Fran- 
ciscan Order,  his  professional  jealousy  was  aroused 
by  their  success,  and  his  Creole  prejudices  were 
outraged  by  their  efforts  to  prevent  the  extension 
of  white  power  among  the  aborigines. 

By  sheer  force  of  ability  and  eloquence,  he  rose 
into  great  prominence  in  southern  Spanish  America, 
and  was  rewarded  for  his  successful  labours  in  Tu- 
cuman by  being  appointed  Bishop  of  Paraguay. 
There  the  Creoles  accepted  him  as  their  leader,  and 
he  soon  became  the  dominant  figure  in  the  com- 
munity. He  cjuarrelled  repeatedly  with  the  gover- 
nor, but  such  was  his  force  of  character,  and  the 
skill  with  which  he  took  advantage  of  the  super- 
stitious reverence  for  his  apostolic  office,  that  he 
invariably  achieved  his  ends.  Once  the  governor, 
at  the  head  of  a  file  of  soldiers,  presented  himself  at 
the  bishop's  door  to  arrest  a  fugitive  whom  the 
bishop  had  undertaken  to  protect.  When  the  door 
was  opened  there  stood  the  dauntless  priest  in  full 


THE  JESUIT  REPUBLIC  1 83 

canonicals,  defying  the  governor  to  cross  his  thresh- 
old. He  excommunicated  the  governor  and  every 
soldier  who  had  dared  take  part  in  this  affront  to 
his  dignity,  and,  like  Hildebrand,  was  only  appeased 
when  the  governor  had  begged  for  pardon  on  his 
knees. 

When  the  governor  died.  Bishop  Cardenas  suc- 
ceeded ad  interim.  His  popularity  and  prestige 
were  unbounded,  and  his  audacity  and  courage  un- 
precedented. Uniting  in  himself  the  religious,  civil, 
and  popular  power,  he  controlled  the  forces  of  the 
community  more  completely  than  any  one  who  had 
preceded  him.  His  great  work  was  the  humiliation 
and  destruction  of  the  Jesuits.  He  hampered  their 
insidious  spread  on  the  hither  side  of  the  Parana, 
and  attempted  the  secularisation  of  many  of  their 
missions.  In  1649  he  took  the  audacious  step  of 
issuing  a  decree  expelling  all  the  members  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  and  he  actually  drove  the  Fathers 
from  their  churches  and  schools  in  Asuncion  itself. 
The  Jesuits  appealed  to  the  Viceroy,  and  a  governor 
was  sent  out  to  depose  him. 

Twenty  years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  Jesuits 
had  armed  the  Mission  Indians  and  organised  them 
into  an  efficient  militia.  An  army  was,  therefore, 
ready  to  the  new  governor's  hand.  The  Creoles  of 
western  Paraguay  were  riotous  and  tumultuous, 
but  in  that  tropical  climate  they  had  lost  much  of 
the  military  capacity  of  their  Spanish  ancestors. 
The  number  of  people  of  Spanish  descent  was  small 
and  while  the  secular  Indians  made  admirable  soldiers 
when  disciplined  and  well  led,  they  had  never  been 


l84  PARAGUAY 

organised  by  the  Creoles  for  serious  warfare.  The 
military  system  of  the  Jesuits  immediately  proved 
its  superiority.  Aided  by  the  prestige  of  his  Vice- 
regal commission,  the  new  governor  at  the  head 
of  the  Jesuit  army  quickly  overcame  the  hastily 
gathered  levies  of  the  Bishop 

For  the  next  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  the 
Jesuits  maintained  their  system  in  south-eastern 
Paraguay  and  the  regions  on  both  banks  of  the 
Parana  and  the  Upper  Uruguay.  Until  1728  their 
territory  was  nominally  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  governor  of  Asuncion.  Really,  however,  it  was 
an  independent  republic  ruled  by  a  superior  whose 
capital  was  at  Candelaria,  and  who  was  actually 
responsible  to  no  one  except  his  General  at  Rome 
and  the  authorities  at  Madrid.  In  the  secular  part 
of  Paraguay,  the  formerly  turbulent  and  secular 
Creoles  sank  more  and  more  into  the  indifference 
characteristic  of  the  Indians  who  surrounded  them. 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  a  governor  named 
Antequera,  whom  the  Viceregal  authorities  at- 
tempted to  depose,  was  forcibly  maintained  for  a 
time  by  the  Paraguayan  Creoles  —  probably  the 
earliest  instance  of  an  important  movement  toward 
independence  which  occurred  in  South  America. 
The  Paraguayans  only  yielded  when  a  compromise 
was  offered.  The  old  ferocity  which  the  original 
conquerors  had  felt  against  the  Indians  gave  place 
gradually  to  kindlier  sentiments.  From  slaves  the 
Indians  rose  into  serfs  and  then  into  peasants,  living 
on  good  terms  with  the  proprietors  of  their  lands, 
and  not  more  oppressed  by  Spanish  officials  than 


THE  JESUIT  REPUBLIC  1 85 

the  whites  themselves.  Secular  Paraguay,  shut  in 
on  the  west  by  the  impenetrable  Chaco  with  its 
hordes  of  dreaded  wild  Indians,  and  on  the  east  by 
the  Jesuit  territory,  could  not  expand.  Indeed  the 
impulse  toward  conquest  and  exploration  which  so 
distinguished  the  Paraguayan  Creoles  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  had  completely  died 
out  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury. 

In  1728,  the  Jesuit  republic  was  formally  detached 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  Paraguay  and  placed  under 
that  of  the  government  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  mis- 
sions were  all  situated  on  or  near  the  banks  of  the 
Upper  Parana  and  Uruguay,  and  their  line  of  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world  ran  directly  to 
Buenos  Aires.  They  had  few  commercial  relations 
with  Asuncion  and  it  was  inconvenient  to  maintain 
even  a  shadow  of  political  relation  with  that  capital. 
The  Jesuit  missions  prospered,  although,  curiously 
enough,  their  population  remained  stationary.  South 
and  east  of  the  Parana,  the  country  which  they  oc- 
cupied was  mostly  an  open,  rolling  plain  admirably 
suited  for  pasturage.  Herding  cattle  was  the  chief 
employment  of  the  Indians  and  the  chief  source  of 
the  exports.  However,  in  the  forests  north-west  of 
the  Parana,  agriculture  was  more  practised,  and  the 
principal  exports  thence  were  the  matte  tea  and 
timber.  In  the  pastoral  country  the  Jesuits  did  not 
expand  farther.  They  had  already  gathered  most 
of  the  Indians  who  inhabited  that  region  into  their 
missions,  and  the  natural  increase  of  population  did 
not  justify  any  new  settlements.     But  in  the  wooded 


1 86  PARAGUAY 

country  across  the  Parana  a  few  tribes  of  Guaranies 
had  hitherto  escaped  subjection  to  either  Creoles  or 
Jesuits,  and  farther  to  the  west,  in  the  great  Chaco, 
there  were  many  tribes  of  savage  and  intractable 
Indians.  In  both  these  directions  the  Jesuits  kept 
up  their  missionary  efforts.  In  Paraguay,  they 
were  successful  and  converted  many  tribes  of  the 
northern  part  of  that  country,  but  in  the  Chaco  they 
could  make  little  progress. 

In  1769  the  king  of  Spain  issued  his  famous  de- 
cree banishing  the  Jesuits  from  all  his  dominions, 
It  was  feared  that  in  the  centre  of  their  power  on  the 
Upper  Parana  they  might  offer  resistance.  They 
commanded  a  population  of  more  than  two  hundred 
thousand  Indians,  fairly  well  armed  and  disciplined 
and  absolutely  devoted  to  them ;  nevertheless,  they 
submitted  quietly.  Spanish  officials  replaced  the 
Jesuits  in  control  of  the  civil  and  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  mission  towns,  and  priests  of  other  Orders 
were  sent  up  to  continue  spiritual  instruction.  The 
Spanish  officials  were,  however,  not  successful  in 
holding  the  Indians  together.  Their  exactions  and 
cruelties  drove  the  Indians  to  despair,  and  within  a 
very  few  years  emigration  began.  The  seven  mis- 
sions to  the  east  of  the  Uruguay  had  been  traded  by 
Spain  to  Portugal  in  1750,  and  most  of  their  inhabit- 
ants had  then  been  killed  or  driven  across  the  Uru- 
guay. The  most  populous  missions  lay  between  the 
Uruguay  and  the  Parana,  in  the  territory  that  to- 
day forms  the  upper  part  of  Corrientes,  and  the 
Missions  Territory.  A  large  proportion  of  their  in- 
habitants fled  down  the  Uruguay  into  Entre  Rios 


THE  JESUIT  REPUBLIC  1 8/ 

and  Uruguay  proper.  Those  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Parana  largely  remained  or  removed  only  far 
enough  to  coalesce  with  the  secular  Indians  of  Para- 
guay;  some  of  the  outlying  and  more  remote  mis- 
sions were  abandoned  altogether,  and  Paraguay  then 
assumed  its  present  extent. 

The  population  was  fairly  homogeneous,  and  its 
vast  majority  was  composed  of  descendants  of  the 
aborigines,  with  comparatively  few  Spaniards  and 
Creoles  of  mixed  blood  forming  the  upper  strata  of 
society.  The  country  felt  few  of  the  quickening 
and  disturbing  influences  which  were  already  ani- 
mating the  regions  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  toward 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Little  effort 
was  necessary  to  get  a  subsistence  from  the  teeming 
soil,  and,  content  with  their  luscious  oranges,  their 
matte,  and  their  unlimited  tobacco,  the  Paraguayans 
led  an  idyllic  existence.  They  had  little  sympathy 
with  the  turbulent,  active-minded  population  which 
was  crowding  into  Buenos  Aires  and  making  it  a 
commercial,  political,  and  intellectual  focus.  Agri- 
cultural in  their  habits,  they  disliked  the  hard-riding 
gauchos  of  the  southern  plains  hardly  less  than  the 
turbulent  Indians  of  the  Chaco.  In  the  movements 
that  preceded  the  revolution  of  1810  they  took  no 
part. 


te^T^^^^^c^  #«'.*-i#.>^4',9-^  j*cn^^^i^^iil  .^ 


CHAPTER   III 

francia's  reign 

ON  the  25th  of  May,  1810,  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment in  Buenos  Aires  overthrew  the  Spanish 
Viceroy.  Its  leaders  were  young  Creole  liberals, 
natives  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  a  junta  was  formed 
from  their  number  which  undertook  the  supreme 
direction  of  affairs.  Prompt  measures  were  taken 
to  overthrow  the  Spanish  provincial  authorities  and 
to  secure  the  co-operation  and  obedience  of  all  the 
subdivisions  of  the  Viceroyalty.  Manuel  Belgrano, 
one  of  the  enthusiastic  leaders  of  the  movement, 
was  sent  up  the  river  to  take  possession  of  Entre 
Rios  and  Corrientes  for  the  junta,  and  to  attack  the 
Spanish  governor  of  Paraguay.  He  was  accom- 
panied by  only  a  few  hundred  troops,  but  he  counted 
on  the  sympathy  and  help  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  v/as  going. 

In  Entre  Rios  and  Corrientes,  which  were  mere 
administrative  divisions  of  the  province  of  Buenos 
Aires,  he  encountered  no  difflculty.  The  gauchos, 
who  formed  almost  the  whole  population,  hated 
outside  control  and  cared  little  who  claimed  to  be 

188 


FRAN  CIA'S  REIGN  1 8(0 

supreme  at  Buenos  Aires.  Belgrano  marched 
through  the  centre  of  these  districts  and  reached 
the  Parana  at  the  old  Jesuit  capital  of  Candelaria. 
Once  across  the  river  he  found  a  different  atmo- 
sphere. The  home-loving  Indian  population  re- 
garded Belgrano's  band  as  invaders  and  responded 
promptly  to  the  call  of  the  Spanish  governor,  old 
Velasco,  to  take  up  arms  and  repel  the  aggression. 
The  Paraguayans  hated  the  Buenos  Aireans  with  an 
intensity  born  of  ignorance  and  isolation,  and  a  con- 
siderable force  of  militia  assembled  for  the  defence 
of  Asuncion.  Among  its  most  popular  leaders  was 
a  native  Paraguayan  named  Yegros.  Belgrano  was 
not  opposed  until  he  approached  within  sixty  miles 
of  Asuncion,  but  on  the  19th  of  January,  181 1,  the 
Paraguayans  turned  and  crushed  his  little  army. 
He  retreated  to  the  south  and  on  March  9th  was 
captured  with  his  whole  force. 

This  repulse  ended,  once  for  all,  the  hope  cherished 
by  the  Buenos  Aires  liberals  of  persuading  or  com- 
pelling the  submission  of  Paraguay.  The  battle  of 
the  19th  of  January,  and  the  hostile  attitude  of  the 
whole  Paraguayan  people,  definitely  assured  Para- 
guay's independence  from  Buenos  Aires.  It  soon 
became  evident  that  independence  from  Spain  had 
been  secured  as  well.  In  contact  with  their  Ar- 
gentine prisoners,  the  more  intelligent  Paraguayan 
leaders  were  quickly  convinced  of  the  advantages 
which  home  rule  would  bring  to  Paraguay,  and  that 
they  themselves  ought  to  control  the  government  un- 
til affairs  in  Spain  should  be  settled.  The  governor 
had  no  Spanish   troops  nor  any  hope  of  receiving 


190  PARAGUAY 

help,  either  from  the  distracted  mother-country  or 
from  the  governors  of  other  parts  of  South  Amer- 
ica. Each  of  them  had  enough  to  do  in  taking 
care  of  himself.  Velasco's  secretary  was  an  edu- 
cated Buenos  Airean,  a  liberal,  and  an  autonomist. 
He  plotted  the  overthrow  of  his  chief  in  connection 
with  a  Paraguaj/an  officer  who  was  popular  with  the 
troops  in  Asuncion. 

Two  months  after  Belgrano's  surrender,  a  blood- 
less revolution  occurred.  The  governor  offered  no 
resistance ;  he  simply  stepped  to  one  side  and  became 
a  private  citizen,  while  the  patriots  took  possession 
of  the  barracks  and  began  casting  about  blindly  for 
a  solid  basis  for  a  new  government.  After  a  good 
deal  of  confusion  the  prominent  citizens  of  the  pro- 
vince were  called  together  in  a  sort  of  rude  Con- 
stituent Congress,  and  a  junta  was  formed.  General 
Yegros  and  Dr.  Francia  were  the  two  most  promi- 
nent and  popular  men  in  the  country,  and  they  were 
naturally  and  inevitably  selected  as  chief  members. 
Yegros  had  been  the  principal  leader  of  the  militia, 
and  Francia  was  considered  the  most  learned  and 
able  man  in  the  community.  He  was  a  lawyer  who 
had  become  a  sort  of  demigod  to  the  lower  classes 
by  his  fearless  advocacy  of  their  rights,  and  inspired 
almost  superstitious  reverence  by  his  reputation  for 
learning  and  disinterestedness.  He  was  selected  as 
secretary,  while  Yegros,  an  ignorant  soldier,  became 
president  of  the  junta.  Francia's  abilities  and  cour- 
age immediately  made  him  the  dominating  figure. 
Jealousies  arose  and  he  stepped  out  for  a  while,  but 
the  weaker  men  who  succeeded  him  could  not  con- 


FRANCIA'S  REIGN  I9I 

trol  the  situation.  Two  years  later  a  popular  as- 
sembly met  which  was  ready  to  submit  to  his  advice 
in  everything.  The  junta  was  dismissed  and  he  and 
Yegros  were  invested  with  supreme  power  under  the 
title  of  Consuls.  A  year  later  he  forced  Yegros  out 
and  with  general  consent  assumed  the  position  of 
sole  executive,  and  in  18 16  he  was  formally  declared 
supreme  and  perpetual  dictator. 

For  the  next  twenty-five  years  he  was  the  Govern- 
ment of  Paraguay.  History  does  not  record  another 
instance  in  which  a  single  man  so  dominated  and 
controlled  a  people.  A  solitary,  mysterious  figure, 
of  whose  thoughts,  purposes,  and  real  character  little 
is  known,  the  worst  acts  of  his  life  were  the  most 
picturesque  and  alone  have  been  recorded.  Al- 
though the  great  Carlyle  includes  him  among  the 
heroes  whose  memory  mankind  should  worship,  the 
opinion  of  his  detractors  is  likely  to  triumph.  Francia 
will  go  down  to  history  as  a  bloody-minded,  im- 
placable despot,  whose  influence  and  purposes  were 
wholly  evil.  After  reading  all  that  has  been  written 
about  this  singular  character,  my  mind  inclines  more 
to  the  judgment  of  Carlyle.  I  feel  that  the  vivid 
imagination  of  the  great  Scotchman  has  pierced  the 
clouds  which  enshrouded  the  spirit  of  a  great  and 
lonely  man  and  has  seen  the  soul  of  Francia  as  he 
was.  Cruel,  suspicious,  ruthless,  and  heartless  as 
he  undeniably  became,  his  acts  will  not  bear  the  in- 
terpretation that  his  purposes  were  selfish  or  that  he 
was  animated  by  mere  vulgar  ambition. 

The  population  over  which  he  ruled  had  for  cent- 
uries been  trained  to  obedience  by  the  Jesuits  and 


192  PARAGUA  Y 

the  Creole  landowners.  The  Creoles  were  few  and 
the  Spaniards  still  fewer.  Francia  based  his  power 
upon  the  Indian  population  and  not  on  the  little 
aristocracy  whose  members  boasted  of  white  blood. 
Convinced  that  the  Indians  were  not  fit  for  self- 
government,  he  also  believed  that  it  would  be  dis- 
astrous to  permit  the  white  oligarchy  to  rule.  He 
proposed  to  save  Paraguay  from  the  civil  disturb 
ances  that  distracted  the  rest  of  South  America, 
He  therefore  absorbed  all  power  in  his  own  hands 
and  ruthlessly  repressed  any  indications  of  insub- 
ordination among  those  of  Spanish  blood.  The  In- 
dians blindly  obeyed  him,  and  he  relentlessly  pursued 
the  Creoles  and  the  priests,  seeming  to  regard  them 
only  as  dangerous  firebrands  who  might  at  any  time 
start  up  a  conflagration  in  the  peaceful  body  politic, 
and  not  as  citizens  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the 
State. 

He  absorbed  in  his  own  person  all  the  functions 
of  government ;  he  had  no  confidants  and  no  assist- 
ants ;  he  allowed  no  Paraguayan  to  approach  him  on 
terms  of  equality.  When  he  died,  a  careful  search 
failed  to  reveal  any  records  of  the  immense  amount 
of  governmental  business  which  he  had  transacted 
during  thirty  years.  The  orders  for  executions  were 
simply  messages  signed  by  him  and  returned,  to  be 
destroyed  as  soon  as  they  had  been  carried  out. 
The  longer  he  lived  the  more  completely  did  he 
apply  his  system  of  absolutism,  and  the  more  confi- 
dent he  became  that  he  alone  could  govern  his  peo- 
ple for  his  people's  good.  He  adopted  a  policy  of 
commercial  isolation,  and  intercourse  with  the  out- 


JOSE   RODRIGUEZ    GASPAR    FRANCIA. 
[From  an  old  wood-cut.] 

1-33 


194  PARAGUAY 

side  world  was  absolutely  forbidden.  Foreigners 
were  not  permitted  to  enter  the  country  without  a 
special  permit,  and  once  there  were  rarely  allowed 
to  leave. 

He  neither  sent  nor  received  consuls  nor  ministers 
to  foreign  nations.  Foreign  vessels  were  excluded 
from  the  Paraguay  River  and  allowed  to  visit  only 
one  port  in  the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  country. 
He  was  the  sole  foreign  merchant.  The  communistic 
system  inherited  from  the  Jesuits  was  developed  and 
extended  to  the  secular  parts  of  the  country.  The 
government  owned  two-thirds  of  the  land  and  con- 
ducted great  farms  and  ranches  in  various  parts  of 
the  territory.  If  labour  was  needed  in  gathering 
crops,  Francia  had  recourse  to  forced  enlistment. 
Those  Indian  missions  which  remained  free  he 
brought  gradually  under  his  own  control  and  fol- 
lowed the  old  Jesuit  policy  of  compelling  the  wild 
Indians  to  work  like  other  citizens.  Dreading  inter- 
ference by  Spain,  Brazil,  or  Buenos  Aires,  he  im- 
proved the  military  forces  and  began  the  organisation 
of  the  whole  population  into  a  militia.  His  policy, 
however,  was  peaceful,  and  the  difificulty  of  getting 
arms  up  the  river,  past  the  forces  of  the  Argentine 
warring  factions,  prevented  his  organising  an  army 
fit  for  offensive  operations  even  if  he  had  desired  to 
have  one. 

As  he  grew  older  he  became  more  solitary  and 
ferocious.  Always  a  gloomy  and  peculiar  man,  ab- 
sorbed in  his  studies  and  making  no  account  of  the 
ordinary  pleasures  and  interests  of  mankind,  he  had 
.reached  the  age  of  fifty-five  and  assumed  supreme 


FRAN  CIA'S  REIGN  1 95 

power,  without  marrying.  His  public  labours  still 
further  cut  him  off  from  thoughts  of  family  and 
friends;  and,  although  it  has  been  asserted  that  he 
married  a  young  Frenchwoman  when  he  was  past 
seventy,  nothing  is  known  about  her.  It  is  certain 
that  he  left  no  children  and  died  attended  only  by 
servants.  His  severities  against  the  educated  classes 
increased ;  he  suffered  from  frequent  fits  of  hypo- 
chondria ;  he  ordered  wholesale  executions,  and  seven 
hundred  political  prisoners  filled  the  jails  when  he 
died.  His  moroseness  increased  year  by  year.  He 
feared  assassination  and  occupied  several  houses, 
letting  no  one  know  where  he  was  going  to  sleep 
from  one  night  to  another,  and  when  walking  the 
streets  kept  his  guards  at  a  distance  before  and  be- 
hind him.  Woe  to  the  enemy  or  suspect  who  at- 
tracted his  attention !  Such  was  the  terror  inspired 
by  this  dreadful  old  man  that  the  news  that  he  was 
out  would  clear  the  streets.  A  white  Paraguayan 
literally  dared  not  utter  his  name;  during  his  life- 
time he  was  "El  Supremo,"  and  after  he  was  dead 
for  generations  he  was  referred  to  simply  as  "El 
Defunto."  For  years  when  men  spoke  of  him  they 
looked  behind  them  and  crossed  themselves,  as  if 
dreading  that  the  mighty  old  man  could  send  devils 
to  spy  upon  them, — at  least  this  is  the  story  of 
Francia's  enemies  who  have  made  it  their  business 
to  hand  his  name  down  to  execration.  The  real 
reason  may  have  been  that  Francia's  successors  re- 
garded defamation  of  "  El  Defunto  "  as  an  indication 
of  unfriendliness  to  themselves. 

Devil  or  saint,  hypochondriac  or  hero,  actuated  by 


196  PARAGUAY 

morbid  vanity  or  by  the  purest  altruism,  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  estimating  the  results  of  Francia's  work 
and  the  extent  of  his  abilities.  That  he  had  a  will 
of  iron  and  a  capacity  beyond  the  ordinary  is  proven 
by  his  life  before  he  became  dictator,  as  well  as  his 
successes  afterwards.  All  authorities  agree  that  he 
had  acquired  as  a  lawyer  a  remarkable  ascendancy 
over  the  common  people  by  his  fearlessness  in  main- 
taining their  causes  before  the  courts  and  corrupt 
officials.  He  did  not  rise  by  any  sycophant  arts; 
indeed,  he  never  veiled  the  contempt  he  felt  for  the 
party  schemers  and  officials  around  him.  When  he 
had  supreme  power  in  his  hands  he  used  it  for  no 
selfish  indulgences.  His  life  was  austere  and  ab- 
stemious ;  parsimonious  for  himself,  he  was  lavish  for 
the  public.  He  would  accept  no  present,  and  either 
returned  those  sent  him,  or  sent  back  their  value  in 
money.  Though  he  had  been  educated  for  the 
priesthood  and  had  never  been  out  of  South  America 
he  had  absorbed  liberal  religious  principles  from  his 
reading.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  likely  to 
ofTend  the  Catholic  Indians,  upon  whose  good  will 
his  power  rested,  than  his  refusal  to  attend  mass, 
but  he  was  honest  enough  with  himself  and  with 
them  not  to  simulate  a  sentiment  which  he  did  not 
feel.  In  his  manners  and  life  he  was  absolutely 
modest ;  he  received  any  who  chose  to  see  him ;  if 
he  was  terrible  it  was  to  the  wealthy  and  the  power- 
ful; the  humblest  Indian  received  a  hearing  and 
justice.  During  his  reign  Paraguay  remained  un- 
disturbed, wrapped  in  a  profound  peace;  the  popu- 
lation rapidly  increased,  and  though  commerce  and 


FRAN  CIA'S  REIGN 


197 


manufactures  did  not  flourish,  nor  the  new  ideas 
which  were  transforming  the  face  of  the  civihsed 
world  penetrate  within  his  barriers,  food  and  cloth- 
ing were  plenty  and  cheap,  and  the  Paraguayans 
prospered  in  their  own  humble  fashion.  Though 
they  might  not  sell  their  delicious  matte,  there  was 
no  limitation  on  its  domestic  use,  and  although 
money  was  not  plentiful  and  foreign  goods  were  a 
rarity,  a  fat  steer  could  be  bought  for  a  dollar,  and 
want  was  unknown. 

The  old  man  lived  until  1840  in  the  full  possession 
of  unquestioned  supreme  power,  dying  at  the  age  of 
eighty-three  years.  His  final  illness  lasted  only  a 
few  days,  and  he  went  on  attending  to  business  to 
the  very  end.  When  asked  to  appoint  a  successor 
he  refused,  bitterly  saying  that  there  would  be  no 
lack  of  heirs.  His  legitimate  and  natural  successor 
could  only  be  that  man  who  could  raise  himself 
through  the  mass  by  his  force  of  character  and 
prove  himself  capable  of  dominating  the  disorganis- 
ing elements  of  Creole  society. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ELDER  LOPEZ 


ONCE  the  breath  was  out  of  the  old  man's  body, 
his  secretary  attempted  to  seize  the  govern- 
ment. He  concealed  Francia's  death  for  several 
hours  and  issued  orders  in  the  dead  man's  name. 
But  as  soon  as  the  news  came  out,  the  army  ofificers, 
whose  assistance  was  essential,  refused  to  obey  him. 
The  poor  secretary  escaped  a  worse  fate  by  hanging 
himself  in  prison,  and  the  troops  amused  themselves 
setting  up  and  pulling  down  would-be  dictators. 
After  several  months  of  anarchy,  it  was  determined 
to  assemble  a  Congress  in  imitation  of  the  first  Con- 
gress which  had  named  Francia  consul.  A  real 
representative  government  was,  of  course,  impossi- 
ble in  Paraguay,  but  the  Creoles,  who  naturally 
formed  the  bulk  of  the  Congress,  were  desirous  of 
insuring  themselves  against  another  dictatorship. 
They  wanted  a  government  where  the  offices  would 
be  passed  around.  However,  an  executive  was 
necessary  and  the  only  executive  they  knew  was  an 
irresponsible  one.  The  title  borne  by  Yegros  and 
Francia  in  the  early  days  seemed  a  good  one,  and 

198 


THE  REIGN  OF   THE  ELDER  LOPEZ  1 99 

SO  it  was  agreed  that  two  consuls  should  be  elected 
for  a  limited  period,  during  which,  however,  they 
were  to  exercise  very  limited  power. 

Among  the  ambitious  and  turbulent  deputies  a 
directing  spirit  arose  in  the  person  of  Carlos  Antonio 
Lopez,  a  well-to-do  rancher  who  had  received  a 
lawyer's  education  and  had  been  careful  to  keep  out 
of  public  view  during  Francia's  reign.  At  this  junc- 
ture he  inevitably  came  to  the  front,  because  he  was 
the  most  learned  and  far-sighted  among  his  fellow 
Creoles.  He  was  a  man  of  great  natural  ability  and 
shrewdness,  highly  intelligent,  well  read,  agreeable 
and  affable  in  his  manners.  Selected  as  one  of  the 
two  Consuls  by  the  Congress  of  1841,  he  soon  pushed 
his  colleague  to  one  side,  and  became  dominant. 
In  1844  an  obsequious  Congress  which  had  been 
summoned  by  him  and  whose  members  he  virtually 
named,  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  President 
for  the  nominal  term  of  ten  years,  which  really  was 
intended  to  be  for  life.  It  is,  however,  significant  of 
the  milder  character  of  Lopez  and  the  increased 
power  of  the  ofiice-holding  class  that  he  preferred 
the  more  republican  title  of  President,  held  for  a 
nominally  limited  period,  to  the  semi-monarchical 
one  of  "El  Supremo,"  borne  by  his  terrible  pre- 
decessor. As  a  matter  of  fact,  Lopez  succeeded 
to  all  the  absolute  power  and  prerogatives  of 
Francia. 

The  new  ruler  was  no  such  determined  doctrinaire 
as  Francia.  He  was  rather  a  clever  opportunist  than 
a  gloomy  idealist.  He  adopted  many  liberal  meas- 
ures, such  as  the  law  providing  that  all  negroes  there- 


200  PARAGUAY 

after  born  should  be  free,  and  he  even  attempted 
to  frame  a  regular  constitution.  He  abandoned  the 
policy  of  isolation,  so  dear  to  Francia,  and  opened 
the  country  in  1845.  He  loved  appreciation  and 
especially  wished  the  approbation  of  foreigners. 
Though  cautious  and  reluctant  to  engage  in  outside 
complications,  he  was  by  nature  and  taste  a  diplomat, 
and  he  welcomed  the  opportunity  to  try  his  wits 
in  wider  competition  than  Paraguay  afforded.  In 
1844,  Rosas,  the  tyrant  of  Buenos  Aires,  was  en- 
gaged in  a  contest  with  revolutionists  in  Corrientes, 
His  ultimate  purpose  was  manifestly  to  unite  the 
whole  Plate  valley  under  his  authority.  Lopez 
shared  the  uneasiness  of  other  neighbouring  rulers 
at  the  growth  of  Rosas's  power.  The  latter  pro- 
mulgated a  decree  forbidding  the  navigation  of  the 
Parana  to  any  but  Argentine  vessels.  This  decree 
was  an  attack  on  Paraguay's  very  plain  and  natural 
fight  to  reach  the  ocean,  and  absolutely  shut  her 
off  from  the  outside  world.  Lopez  resented  the 
aggression,  and  after  many  protests  declared  war 
against  Buenos  Aires  in  1849.  Nothing  came  of  it, 
however,  except  to  give  his  oldest  son  a  chance  to 
see  actual  serxnce  and  to  emphasise  Lopez's  enmity 
to  Rosas  and  his  policy.  The  way  was  prepared 
for  his  friendship  with  Urquiza,  the  great  leader  of 
the  Argentine  provincials,  and  for  the  opening  of 
Paraguay  to  foreign  commerce. 

Permission  was  granted  in  1845  for  foreign  ships 
to  ascend  the  Paraguay  as  far  as  Asuncion,  and 
foreigners  were  no  longer  forbidden  to  enter  the 
country.      On  the  contrary,  Lopez  evinced  a  marked 


THE  REIGN  OF    THE  ELDER  LOPEZ         20I 

desire  for  their  society  and  encouraged  them  to 
come  and  engage  in  trade.  His  manners  were  en- 
gaging and  his  courtesies  untiring,  unless  his  will 
was  crossed  or  his  suspicions  aroused,  when  he 
could  be  very  unreasonable  and  arbitrary. 

The  spirit  of  the  Paraguayan  Creoles  had  been  so 
broken  by  the  terrible  proscriptions  of  Francia's 
reign  that  Lopez  did  not  experience  much  difificulty 
in  ruling  them.  His  milder  methods  and  the  terror 
of  a  renewal  of  the  cruelties  of  Francia's  time  suc- 
ceeded in  holding  all  demonstrations  of  lawlessness 
or  rebellion  in  check.  He  was  averse  to  shedding 
blood,  and  his  subjects  enjoyed  substantial  liberty 
in  their  goings  and  comings.  Justice  was  well  and 
regularly  administered,  and  lite  and  property  were 
almost  absolutely  safe.  Over  every  kind  of  affairs, 
however,  he  exercised  a  patriarchal  supervision. 
One  trustworthy  traveller  tells  of  being  waited  on 
at  table  in  a  remote  part  of  Paraguay  by  a  fine-ap- 
pearing man  whose  face  was  very  sad  and  who 
seemed  very  awkward  in  handling  the  dishes.  On 
inquiry,  it  turned  out  that  the  waiter  was  the  richest 
man  in  eastern  Paraguay  and  had  been  condemned 
by  the  President  to  serve  in  a  menial  capacity  as  a 
punishment  for  insulting  a  woman.  Lopez's  ideas 
of  freedom  did  not  contemplate  that  his  people 
might  engage  in  politics  or  the  discussion  of  any 
public  affairs.  During  the  civil  war  in  Corrientes, 
Paraguayans  were  forbidden  to  speak  of  what  was 
going  on  across  the  river.  Sometimes  farmers  were 
required  to  cultivate  a  certain  area  in  a  certain  crop. 
He  maintained  the  government  monopoly  of  yerba 


202  PARAGUAY 

and  completed  Francia's  work  of  incorporating  the 
free  Indians. 

An  instance  of  his  ready  interest  in  foreigners  was 
his  connection  with  a  young  American,  named  Hop- 
kins, who  had  been  sent  out  in  1845  by  the  United 
States  Government  to  investigate  the  advisability  of 
recognising  Paraguay,  then  accessible  for  the  first 
time.  This  enterprising  young  man  fired  Lopez's 
imagination  with  his  accounts  of  the  material  pro- 
gress of  the  United  States,  and  Lopez  even  lent  him 
money  to  return  and  form  a  company  for  the  pur- 
pose of  introducing  American  goods  and  cigar  manu- 
facture into  Paraguay.  Hopkins,  after  several  years, 
succeeded  in  interesting  some  American  capitalists 
and  came  back  and  established  his  factory.  At  first 
Lopez  was  delighted,  but  he  soon  quarrelled  with 
the  Americans.  The  etiquette  in  Paraguay  was  that 
the  President  should  remain  seated  with  his  hat  on 
when  he  granted  an  audience,  and  the  manners  of 
the  visitor  were  expected  to  be  correspondingly 
humble.  The  Americans  mortally  offended  him 
by  forgetting  themselves  in  his  presence.  The 
situation  soon  became  intolerable  and  the  company 
retired. 

After  the  overthrow  of  Rosas  in  185 1  the  Parana 
was  declared  free  for  navigation  to  vessels  of  all 
nations  by  Argentine  law  and  by  treaties  to  which 
Brazil  and  Uruguay  were  parties,  although  Paraguay 
was  not.  Nevertheless,  Lopez  permitted  ships  to 
ascend  freely  to  Asuncion.  Lopez  wished  to  con- 
centrate all  trade  at  Asuncion  and  opened  no  ports 
north  of  his  capital.     The  upper  course  of  the  river 


THE  REIGN  OF    THE   ELDER   LOPEZ         203 

belonged  to  Brazil,  but  the  boundary  between  Brazil 
and  Paraguay  had  remained  unsettled  from  colonial 
times.  In  his  control  of  the  Lower  Paraguay,  Lopez 
had  a  lever  to  force  Brazil  to  terms.  He  steadfastly 
refused  to  permit  ships  to  ascend  into  Brazil  in  spite 
of  the  latter's  persistent  efforts  to  procure  the  nat- 
ural and  necessary  right  of  egress  to  the  ocean  by  an 
international  river.  While  this  matter  still  remained 
unsettled,  Lieutenant  Page  of  the  United  States 
Navy  appeared  in  the  Water  Witch  at  Asuncion  on 
his  survey  of  the  Paraguay.  Lopez  was  delighted, 
and  extended  every  facility  to  the  officer  as  far  as 
the  northern  boundary  of  Paraguay.  Page  went  on 
up  to  Brazil.  I>opez  was  offended,  for  he  feared 
that  he  would  be  at  a  disadvantage  in  his  further 
negotiations  with  Brazil  by  having  apparently  granted 
to  an  American  ship  the  permission  which  he  had 
steadily  refused  to  Brazilians.  Unfortunately,  just 
at  this  time  occurred  the  quarrel  with  the  American 
promoter,  Hopkins.  The  American  officer  took  his 
countryman's  side,  giving  him  refuge  on  board  the 
Water  WitcJi.  This  so  enraged  Lopez  that  he  issued 
a  decree  prohibiting  foreign  war-vessels  from  enter- 
ing Paraguayan  waters,  and  one  of  his  forts  fired  at 
the  Lieutenant's  vessel,  killing  a  man.  This  out- 
rage brought  about  Lopez's  ears  a  naval  expedition 
which  compelled  him  to  apologise  and  to  agree  to 
reimburse  the  Hopkins  Company. 

Brazil  also  sent  a  fleet  up  the  Parana  to  coerce 
Lopez  into  granting  free  transit  along  the  Paraguay, 
but  he  cleverly  held  the  Brazilians  in  parley  until  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  fortify  the  river.      England's 


204  PARAGUA  V 

gunboats  at  Buenos  Aires  virtually  held  the  Para- 
guayan flagship,  with  Lopez's  eldest  son  on  board  as 
hostage  for  a  young  British  subject  named  Canstatt, 
who  had  been  imprisoned  and  condemned  to  death 
for  complicity  in  a  conspiracy  at  Asuncion.  Lopez 
was  forced  to  release  him  and  pay  damages. 

These  humiliations  changed  his  love  for  foreigners 
into  a  bitter  hatred,  and  he  began  to  prepare  his 
country  to  resist  their  aggressions  more  effectively. 
From  his  youth  he  had  trained  his  sons  to  succeed 
him.  Francisco,  the  eldest,  early  evinced  a  taste 
for  military  affairs.  When  only  eighteen  years  of 
age,  he  commanded  the  expedition  of  1849  into  the 
Argentine,  and  thenceforward  continued  to  be  his 
father's  general-in-chief  and  minister-of-war  and 
the  active  agent  in  improving  Paraguay's  military 
resources.  The  second  son,  Venancio,  was  com- 
mander of  the  garrison  at  Asuncion,  and  the  third, 
Benigno,  was  Admiral.  Though  so  rigid  with  his 
other  subjects,  he  gave  both  his  sons  and  daughters 
unlimited  license  and  they  grew  up  to  regard  them- 
selves as  members  of  a  royal  family.  They  enriched 
themselves  at  the  public  expense.  The  sons  took 
as  many  mistresses  as  they  pleased  and  gave  free 
rein  to  all  their  cruel  and  bad  instincts.  The  selfish- 
ness, obstinacy,  unspeakable  cruelty,  and  hard- 
heartedness  of  Francisco  were  soon  to  bring  the 
guiltless  Paraguayan  people  to  the  verge  of  ex- 
tinction. 

In  1854  Lopez  had  sent  Francisco  to  Europe  as 
ambassador.  The  young  man  spent  eighteen  months 
in  the  different  Courts  of  Europe,  and  returned  an 


THE  REIGN  OF   THE  ELDER  LOPEZ 


205 


expert  in  the  vices  of  great  capitals  and  enamoured 
of  military  glory.  After  seeing  the  reviews  of  Euro- 
pean armies,  he  became  convinced  that  Paraguay 
could  be  made  an  efficient  military  power  and  that 
he  himself  might  play  a  Napoleonic  role  in  South 
America.  His  father,  exasperated  by  the  repeated 
humiliations  put  upon  him  by  other  countries,  gave 
hearty  support  to  his  plans  for  the  improvement  of 
the  Paraguayan  army.  In  1862,  after  a  long  and 
painful  illness,  the  elder  Lopez  died.  Francisco 
took  possession  of  his  effects  and  papers  and  pro- 
duced a  will  naming  himself  Vice-President.  Word 
sent  to  the  military  chiefs  of  the  different  towns 
insured  the  assembling  of  an  obedient  Congress  at 
Asuncion,  by  which  he  was  formally  elected  and 
proclaimed  President  and  invested  with  all  the  absol- 
ute power  wielded  by  his  father  and  Francia. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE   WAR 


THE  new  President  was  thirty-five  years  old, 
good-looking,  careful  of  his  appearance,  fond 
of  military  finery,  and  strutted  as  he  walked.  He 
spoke  French  and  Spanish  fluently,  but  with  his 
officers  and  men  used  only  Guarany.  He  was  an 
eloquent  speaker  and  had  the  gift  of  inspiring  his 
troops  with  confidence  in  himself  and  contempt  for 
the  enemy.  He  had  a  will  of  iron ;  his  pride  was 
intense;  he  was  absolutely  unscrupulous,  and  had 
no  regard  for  the  truth.  He  never  showed  any 
feeling  of  kindness  to  his  most  devoted  subjects. 
He  ordered  his  best  friends  to  execution  ;  he  tortured 
his  mother  and  sisters  and  murdered  his  brothers. 
The  only  natural  affection  he  ever  evinced  was  a 
fondness  for  Madame  Lynch,  a  woman  whom  he  had 
picked  up  in  Paris,  and  for  her  children.  He  seems 
to  have  treated  her  well  to  the  last,  but  his  numerous 
other  mistresses  and  their  children  he  heartlessly 
abandoned.  Though  physically  an  arrant  coward, 
no  defeats  could  discourage  him.  He  fought  to  the 
last  against  overwhelming  odds  and  was  able  to  re- 

206 


THE    WAR  207 

tain  his  personal  ascendancy  over  his  followers,  even 
after  he  had  been  driven  into  the  woods  and  all 
reasonable  hope  was  lost. 

He  began  his  reign  like  a  Mahometan  sultan  by 
ridding  himself  of  his  father's  most  trusted  counsel- 
lors, imprisoning  and  executing  the  most  intelligent 
and  powerful  citizens,  and  banishing  his  brothers. 
The  military  preparations  which  he  had  begun  as 
his  father's  Minister  of  War  were  continued  with  in- 
creased vigour.  The  warlike  Argentines  and  Uru- 
guayans and  the  powerful  empire  of  Brazil  laughed 
at  his  pretensions  to  become  a  real  factor  in  South 
American  international  affairs,  but  their  laughter 
soon  cost  them  dear.  He  was  a  monarch  of  a  com- 
pact little  state  whose  position  behind  rivers  in  the 
centre  of  the  continent  made  it  admirably  defensible. 
Its  eight  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  were  obedi- 
ent, brave,  and  physically  vigorous.  Accustomed 
for  generations  to  regard  their  dictator  as  the  greatest 
ruler  in  the  world,  knowing  no  duty  except  absolute 
compliance  with  his  will,  they  never  doubted  that 
under  his  leadership  they  would  be  invincible.  He 
knew  that  he  could  raise  an  army  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  size  of  his  country.  The  problem  was 
how  to  arm  it.  With  Buenos  Aires  commanding 
the  only  route  of  ingress  from  abroad  it  had  been 
difficult  for  his  father  and  himself  to  obtain  war 
material  from  Europe.  For  years,  however,  they 
had  been  buying  all  that  they  could  and  had  accu- 
mulated several  hundred  cannon,  most  of  them  anti- 
quated cast-iron  smooth-bores.  They  had  fortified 
the  point  of   Humaita  which  admirably  protected 


208  PARAGUA  V 

the  Paraguay  River  from  naval  attacks,  and  had 
estabHshed  an  arsenal  at  Asuncion. 

Against  Brazil  Lopez  had  serious  cause  of  com- 
plaint. The  boundary  question  was  still  unsettled 
and  his  possession  of  the  Lower  Paraguay  placed 
the  great  province  of  Matto  Grosso  at  his  merry, 
while  the  existence  of  that  province,  geographically 
a  mere  northern  extension  of  Paraguay,  was  a  men- 
ace to  his  own  safety.  Against  the  Argentines  his 
hatred  was  not  so  well  founded,  but  none  the  less 
bitter. 

The  usual  civil  war  was  going  on  in  Uruguay  in 
1863.  The  party  which  held  the  capital  was  out  of 
favour  at  Rio  and  at  Buenos  Aires,  and  Brazil  and 
Argentine  were  both  inclined  to  support  the  pre- 
tensions of  Flores,  who  led  the  revolutionists. 
Lopez  thought  that  his  own  interests  were  con- 
cerned and  asserted  his  right  to  be  consulted  as  to 
Uruguayan  affairs.  A  mighty  shout  of  laughter 
went  up  from  the  Buenos  Aires  press  at  the  preten- 
sions of  the  cacique  of  an  Indian  tribe  to  the  position 
of  guardian  of  the  equilibrium  of  South  America. 
Brazil  ignored  his  protests  and  calmly  went  on  with 
her  preparations  to  establish  her  proteg^  in  Monte- 
video. In  the  beginning  of  1864  Lopez  began  active 
preparations  for  war.  His  army  already  numbered 
twenty-eight  thousand  men,  and  by  the  end  of 
August  sixty-four  thousand  more  had  been  enrolled 
and  drilled.  Although  ill  provided  with  artillery 
and  horses,  and  although  the  infantry  were  mostly 
armed  with  old-fashioned  flintlocks,  no  such  formid- 
able force  had  ever  assembled  in  South  America. 


THE    WAR  209 

The  news  of  Lopez's  preparations  exasperated  and 
somewhat  alarmed  the  people  of  Buenos  Aires, 
though  no  one  knew  his  exact  intentions.  Lopez 
had,  in  fact,  determined  to  compel  the  Brazilian 
and  Argentine  governments  to  accept  his  wishes  as 
to  Uruguay  or  to  risk  all  in  the  hazard  of  war. 
Perhaps  hazy  dreams  of  himself  as  emperor  of  a 
domain  extending  from  the  southern  sources  of  the 
Amazon  far  down  the  Plate  valley  and  over  to  the 
Atlantic  coast  passed  through  his  brain.  Possibly 
he  foresaw  clearly  that  Paraguay  had  come  to  the 
parting  of  the  ways,  and  that  she  must  either  fight 
her  way  to  the  sea  or  reconcile  herself  to  slow  suffo- 
cation between  the  immense  masses  of  Brazil  and 
Argentina.  In  such  a  contest  the  only  allies  he 
could  hope  for  would  be  revolutionary  factions  in 
Uruguay  and  Corrientes,  and  possibly  the  virtually 
independent  ruler  of  Entre  Rios.  In  case  of  a  war 
with  Brazil  alone,  the  neutrality  of  Argentina  might 
have  been  secured  by  careful  management,  but  in 
the  freer  countries  the  feeling  against  him  as  a 
despot  was  strong,  and  the  extension  of  his  system 
would  have  been  regarded  as  a  menace  to  civilisa- 
tion. 

Late  in  1864  the  Brazilian  forces  marched  into  Uru- 
guay and  joined  Flores.  Lopez  promptly  retaliated 
by  seizing  a  Brazilian  steamer  which  was  passing 
Asuncion  on  its  way  to  Matto  Grosso  and  followed  up 
this  aggression  by  an  invasion  of  the  latter  province. 
His  forces  quickly  reduced  the  towns  on  the  banks 
of  the  Paraguay  as  far  as  steamers  could  penetrate. 
It  was  impossible  to  send  reinforcements  overland 

VOL.  I.— 14.  _ 


2l6  PAJiAGUAY 

from  Rio ;  Brazil's  counter-attack  must  be  delivered 
from  the  south.  The  empire  was  unprepared,  but 
its  troops  poured  into  Uruguay  and  Rio  Grande  as 
fast  as  they  could  be  mobilised.  The  anti-Flores 
party  were  crushed  by  the  siege  and  capture  of 
Paysandu  late  in  1864.  The  Argentine  government 
under  Mitre  proclaimed  its  neutrality.  Lopez  was 
flushed  with  his  easy  success  in  Matto  Grosso.  The 
forces  he  had  on  foot  overwhelmingly  outnumbered 
those  of  the  Brazilians  in  Uruguay  and  Rio  Grande. 
He  wished  to  strike  the  latter  before  they  could  be 
re-enforced,  overrun  Rio  Grande,  and,  as  master  of 
one  of  Brazil's  most  valuable  provinces,  dictate 
terms.  To  reach  the  Brazilians  it  was  necessary  to 
cross  the  Argentine  province  of  Corrientes.  He 
asked  for  permission  to  do  so  and  Mitre  refused. 
Notwithstanding  the  risk  involved,  he  promptly  de- 
cided to  finish  up  both  Argentine  and  Brazil  at  the 
same  time.  Sending  his  troops  across  the  Parana 
he  virtually  annexed  Corrientes  and  declared  war 
on  Buenos  Aires.  Lopez  destined  twenty-five 
thousand  men  for  the  invasion  of  Corrientes  and 
the  conquest  of  the  Lower  Uruguay  valley,  but  the 
difficulties  of  getting  so  large  an  army  across  the 
river  and  ready  for  an  advance  into  a  hostile  country 
were  unexpectedly  great.  The  gauchos  of  Corri- 
entes, trained  for  generations  in  civil  wars,  quickly 
assembled  to  oppose  the  Paraguayans.  Meanwhile, 
a  Brazilian  fleet  came  up;  and,  on  June  2,  1865,  at 
Riachuelo,  decisively  defeated  the  Paraguayan  naval 
forces.  Lopez  thereby  lost  all  hope  of  commanding 
the  river.     The  communications  of  his  army  in  Cor- 


THE    WAR 


211 


rientes  might  be  cut  off  at  any  time  and  an  advance 
became  impossible.  The  battle  of  Riachuelo  threw 
Paraguay  on  the  defensive  and  made  Lopez's  great 


FRANCISCO    SOLANO    LOPEZ. 
[From  a  photograph  taken  in  1849.] 

plan  of  carrying  the  war  to  the  Uruguay  impract- 
icable. 

Nevertheless,  Lopez  did  not  recall  the  twelve 
thousand  men  he  had  sent  across  the  missions  to 
invade  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Uruguay  and  the 
state  of  Rio   Grande.     The  Brazilians  were  taken 


212  PARAGUAY 

unprepared,  and  early  in  August  the  Paraguayans 
had  captured  the  chief  Brazilian  town  in  that  region 
— Uruguayana,  The  failure  of  the  Corrientes  army 
to  reach  the  Lower  Uruguay  left  the  route  up  that 
river  free.  The  Brazilian  and  Uruguayan  army, 
which  had  been  victorious  at  Paysandu,  marched  up 
the  west  bank  and  defeated  and  destroyed  the  rear- 
guard which  the  Paraguayans  had  left  on  the  Argen- 
tine side  opposite  Uruguayana,  Lopez's  army  was 
therefore  cut  off  from  retreat.  It  was  promptly 
surrounded,  and  on  the  17th  of  September,  1865, 
had  to  surrender. 

This  put  an  end  to  Lopez's  plan  of  an  offensive 
campaign.  Indignant  at  the  invasion  of  her  soil, 
Argentina  had  allied  herself  with  Brazil  against  him. 
A  secret  treaty  was  signed  between  Brazil,  Argen- 
tina, and  Flores,  now  recognised  as  ruler  of  Uruguay, 
to  prosecute  the  war  to  a  finish,  to  depose  Lopez 
from  his  throne,  and  to  disarm  the  Paraguayan 
fortifications.  Lopez  withdrew  his  army  from  Cor- 
rientes and  concentrated  all  his  forces  in  the  south- 
west angle  of  his  own  territory. 

The  position  was  admirable  for  defence.  North 
of  the  Parana  and  east  of  the  Paraguay  stretched  a 
low,  wooded  country  subject  to  overflow,  and  inter- 
sected by  shallow,  mud-bottomed  lagoons,  which 
were  old  abandoned  beds  of  the  rivers.  The  Para- 
guay protected  his  right  flank  and  afforded  him 
a  direct  and  easy  communication  with  Asuncion. 
Batteries  on  the  point  of  Humaita,  which  the  Bra- 
zilian fleet  did  not  dare  to  try  to  pass,  insured  this 
line  of  communication.     West  of  the  Paraguay  the 


THE    WAR  213 

great  Chaco,  there  impenetrable,  prevented  a  move- 
ment to  get  north  of  Humaita  on  that  side.  To  the 
east  the  swamps  along  the  Parana  extended  in- 
definitely, and  an  advance  of  the  enemy  in  that 
direction  would  have  had  its  communications  cut  by 
an  army  encamped  near  Humaita.  Humaita  was, 
therefore,  the  key  to  the  situation,  and  the  allies 
could  not  advance  until  they  captured  it  or,  by  run- 
ning the  batteries  with  their  fleet,  destroyed  Lopez's 
control  of  the  Paragua}-. 

By  March,  1866,  the  allies  had  concentrated  a 
force  of  forty  thousand  men  just  south  of  the  fork 
of  the  rivers.  About  twenty-five  thousand  were 
Brazilians,  twelve  thousand  Argentines  and  three 
thousand  Uruguayans.  The  Brazilian  fleet,  num- 
bering eighteen  steam  gunboats  carrying  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  guns,  lay  near  at  hand  ready 
to  co-operate.  Protected  by  the  fire  of  the  gun- 
boats, the  whole  allied  army  had  little  difficulty  in 
crossing  the  Parana  and  establishing  itself  on  Para- 
guayan soil.  Lopez  lost  heavily  in  vain  attempts 
to  prevent  this  landing.  On  May  2nd,  a  force  of 
Paraguayans  surprised  the  allies  a  few  miles  north 
of  the  river  and  badly  cut  up  the  vanguard.  The 
allies,  however,  continued  advancing  and  took  a 
strong  position  just  south  of  a  great  lagoon.  Here, 
on  the  24th  of  May,  they  were  attacked  by  the 
whole  Paraguayan  army  of  twenty-five  thousand 
men,  who  fought  with  desperate  valour,  but  at  a 
hopeless  disadvantage.  A  quarter  of  the  Para- 
guayan soldiers  were  left  dead  on  the  field,  and 
another  quarter  were  badly  wounded,  while  the  loss 


214  PARAGUAY 

of  the  allies  was  half  as  great.  The  Paraguayan 
army  was  apparently  destroyed,  but  the  allies  had 
suffered  so  severely,  and  the  difficulties  of  trans- 
portation through  the  swamps  were  so  great,  that 
they  did  not  make  the  sudden  dash  upon  the 
trenches  at  Humaita  which  might  have  ended  the 
war.  Lopez  did  his  utmost  to  reorganise  his  army. 
Practically  the  whole  male  population  was  impressed 
into  service.  The  river  line  of  communication  to 
Asuncion,  and  the  strategic  railroad  thence  up  into 
the  most  fertile  and  populous  interior  of  the  country, 
enabled  him  comfortably  to  command  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  country,  both  in  men  and  provisions. 
Humaita  had  already  been  well  fortified  on  the 
land  side,  and  Lopez  now  threw  up  the  trenches  at 
the  top  of  the  bluff  at  Curupayty,  the  first  high  land 
on  the  Paraguay  River  north  of  the  allied  army  and 
south  of  Humaita,  and  connected  it  with  the  latter 
fortress.  Lopez  had  the  advantage  of  the  services 
of  a  clever  English  civil  engineer;  and  the  fortifica- 
tions, though  rude,  were  soon  made  practically  im- 
pregnable to  assault.  In  spite  of  their  defeats,  the 
Paraguayans  were  as  ready  as  ever  to  attack  when 
Lopez  commanded,  or  to  stand  up  and  be  shot  down 
to  the  last  man.  They  were  the  most  obedient  sol- 
diers imaginable ;  they  never  complained  of  an  in- 
justice and  never  questioned  an  order  when  given. 
Even  if  a  soldier  were  flogged,  he  consoled  himself 
by  saying,  "If  my  father  did  not  flog  me,  who 
would?"  Every  one  called  his  superior  officer  his 
"father,"  and  Lopez  was  the  "Great  Father." 
Each  officer  was  responsible  with  his  life  for  the 


THE    WAR  215 

faithfulness  and  conduct  of  his  men  and  had  orders 
to  shoot  any  that  wavered.  Each  soldier  knew  that 
the  men  who  touched  shoulders  with  him  right  and 
left  were  instructed  to  shoot  him  if  he  tried  to  desert 
or  fly,  and  those  two  knew  that  the  men  beyond 
them  would  shoot  them  if  they  failed  to  kill  the 
poor  fellow  in  the  centre  of  the  five.  This  cruel 
system  answered  perfectly  with  the  Paraguayans, 
and  to  the  very  end  of  the  war  they  never  refused 
to  fight  steadily  against  the  most  hopeless  odds. 

Meanwhile,  the  allies  awaited  reinforcements  and 
supplies  in  the  noisome  swamps,  dying  meantime 
by  thousands  of  fever.  By  the  end  of  June,  when 
the  allies  finally  determined  to  assault  the  fortifica- 
tions around  Humaita,  Lopez  had  twenty  thousand 
men  on  the  ground.  After  some  bloody  and  inde- 
cisive fighting  in  the  swamps,  General  Mitre,  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  ordered  a  grand  attack  upon 
the  entrenchments  at  Curupayty.  On  the  22nd  of 
September,  1866,  it  began  with  the  bombardment 
by  the  Brazilian  ironclads.  Eighteen  thousand  men 
in  four  columns  advanced  from  the  south,  and  threw 
themselves  blindly  against  the  fortifications.  When 
they  came  to  close  quarters  they  were  thrown  into 
disorder  by  the  terrible  artillery  fire  from  the  Para- 
guayan trenches,  which  cross-enfiladed  them  in 
different  directions.  The  enormous  canisters  dis- 
charged from  the  eight-inch  guns  point-blank,  at  a 
distance  of  two  or  three  hundred  yards,  wrought 
fearful  execution.  The  rifle  fire  of  the  allies  was 
useless,  and  the  Paraguayans  simply  waited  behind 
their  trenches  until  the  Brazilians   and  Ar":entines 


2l6  PARAGUAY 

were  close  at  hand  and  then  fired.  The  allies  retired 
in  good  order,  after  suffering  a  loss  of  one-third  their 
number.  The  soldiers  obediently  kept  rushing  on 
to  certain  death  until  their  officers,  seeing  that  suc- 
cess was  hopeless,  told  them  that  they  might  retreat. 
The  courage  of  the  Paraguayans  had  been  proved 
in  their  unsuccessful  assaults  on  the  allies  the  year 
before,  and  now  the  Argentines  and  Brazilians 
showed  even  in  this  awful  defeat  what  a  stomach 
they,  too,  had  for  hand-to-hand  fighting. 

After  the  battle  of  Curupayty,  nothing  was  at- 
tempted on  either  side  for  fourteen  months.  Both 
sides  had  had  enough  of  attacking  fortified  positions. 
The  Paraguayans  lay  in  Humaita  and  the  allies  oc- 
cupied themselves  with  fortifying  their  camps.  The 
imperial  government  made  tremendous  exertions  to 
reinforce  the  army.  The  Argentines  also  did  their 
best,  but  the  efforts  of  both  were  hardly  sufficient  to 
make  good  the  terrible  ravages  of  the  cholera,  which 
by  the  beginning  of  May,  1867,  had  put  thirteen 
thousand  Brazilians  in  hospitals.  It  was  not  until 
July  that  the  allies  felt  themselves  again  ready  to 
take  the  offensive.  A  division  marched  up  the 
Parana  with  the  purpose  of  outflanking  Humaita  on 
the  east,  while  cavalry  raids  were  sent  out  to  the 
north  and  rendered  the  outlying  positions  of  the 
Paraguayans  unsafe.  Finally,  in  November,  1867, 
the  Brazilian  troops  succeeded  in  getting  over  to  the 
Paraguay  River,  north  and  in  the  rear  of  Lopez,  and 
General  Barreto  captured  and  fortified  a  strong  po- 
sition on  the  bank  fifteen  miles  north  of  Humaita. 
This  was  fatal  to  the  security  and  communications 


r 


2l8  PARAGUAY 

of  Lopez.  He  made  one  more  desperate  and  un- 
successful assault  on  the  main  position  of  the  allies, 
and  then  began  to  plan  to  retire  toward  Asuncion. 
At  the  same  time  the  Brazilian  ironclads  passed  the 
batteries  at  Curupayty,  compelling  Lopez  to  with- 
draw his  troops  up  the  river  to  Humaita.  The  war 
became  virtually  a  siege  of  the  latter  place,  which 
was  constantly  bombarded  by  the  fleet  from  the 
front  and  by  the  army  from  the  rear.  The  Brazilian 
position  on  the  river  to  the  north  cut  Lopez  off  from 
direct  river  communication  with  Asuncion,  and  he 
had  to  transport  his  supplies  on  a  new  road  built 
in  the  Chaco  swamps.  He  began  preparations  to 
evacuate  Humaita  and  retreat  to  the  north.  In 
January,  1868,  Mitre  definitely  retired  from  the 
command  of  the  allies  and  was  succeeded  by  the 
Brazilian  Marshal  Caxias.  A  month  later  (February 
1 8th)  the  Brazilian  fleet  of  ironclads  finally  succeeded 
in  running  the  batteries  at  Humaita,  and  after 
throwing  a  few  bombs  at  Asuncion,  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  more  useful  task  of  cutting  off  the 
transports  to  Lopez's  army. 

Lopez's  line  of  river  communication  was  now 
completely  at  the  enemies'  mercy,  and  a  large  force 
could  not  be  maintained  at  Humaita.  He  trans- 
ported his  army  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Paraguay; 
recrossing  when  he  got  beyond  the  Brazilian  posi- 
tions. The  garrison  of  three  thousand  men  which 
he  left  at  Humaita  defended  itself  for  six  months. 
In  the  meantime,  he  had  fortified  a  new  position  less 
than  fifty  miles  from  Asuncion  and  accessible  across 
the  country  from  hi.'s  base  of  supplies  in  central 


THE    WAR  219 

Paraguay.  On  his  right  flank  a  river  battery  was 
erected  which  again  prevented  the  Brazilians  from 
reaching  the  upper  river.  Opposite  this  point,  how- 
ever, the  Chaco  is  penetrable,  and  Caxias  landed  a 
force  on  the  west  bank  and,  marching  up,  crossed 
the  river  in  the  rear  of  Lopez's  position.  The  Bra- 
zilians closed  in  from  the  north  and  south  on  the 
few  thousand  Paraguayans,  who  were  all  that  sur- 
vived, and  after  several  days  of  desperate  fighting, 
December  27,  1868,  the  Brazilians  carried  Lopez's 
position  and  he  fled  for  his  life  to  the  interior,  fol- 
lowed by  a  thousand  men. 

Even  after  such  a  defeat  he  was  indomitable  and 
succeeded  in  gathering  another  small  army  which 
was  pursued  and  destroyed  in  August,  1869.  Lopez 
again  escaped  and  took  refuge  in  the  wild  and  mount- 
ainous regions  in  the  north  of  Paraguay.  The  Bra- 
zilian cavalry  pursued  him  relentlessly,  but  it  was 
not  until  March  i,  1870,  that  he  was  caught.  In  an 
attempt  to  escape  he  was  speared  by  a  common 
soldier. 


CHAPTER   VI 


PARAGUAY   SINCE    187O 


NO  modern  nation  has  ever  come  so  near  to  com- 
plete annihilation  as  Paraguay  during  her  five 
years*  war  against  the  Triple  Alliance.  Out  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  able-bodied  men  who 
were  living  in  1864,  less  than  twenty-five  thousand 
survived  in  1870.  Not  less  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  Paraguayan  men — the  fathers 
and  bread-winners,  the  farmers  and  labourers — had 
perished  in  battle,  by  disease  or  exposure  or  starva- 
tion. One  hundred  thousand  adult  women  had  died 
of  hardship  and  hunger,  and  there  were  less  than 
ninety  thousand  children  under  fifteen  in  the  coun- 
try. The  surviving  women  outnumbered  the  men 
five  to  one;  the  practice  of  polygamy  naturally 
increased,  and  women  were  forced  to  become  the 
labourers  and  bread-winners  for  the  community. 

The  slaughter  was  greatest  in  proportion  among 
the  people  of  white  blood.  When  Lopez  was  wait- 
ing in  1868  for  the  final  attack  of  the  Brazilians,  he 
made  use  of  the  last  months  of  his  power  to  arrest, 
torture,  and  murder  nearly  every  white  man  left  in 

220 


PARAGUAY  SINCE    1870  22 F 

Paraguay,  including  his  own  brother,  his  brother-in- 
law,  and  the  generals  who  had  served  him  best,  and 
the  friends  who  had  enjoyed  his  most  intimate  con- 
fidence. Even  women  and  foreigners  did  not  escape 
the  cold,  deliberate  bloodthirstiness  of  this  demon. 
He  had  his  own  sister  beaten  with  clubs  and 
exposed  her  naked  in  the  forest ;  had  the  wife  of 
the  brave  general  who  was  forced  to  surrender  at 
Humaita  speared,  and  subjected  two  members  of 
the  American  Legation  to  the  most  sickening  tor- 
tures. •  The  Minister  himself  barely  escaped  with 
his  life. 

When  the  Brazilians  captured  Asuncion  in  1868 
they  installed  a  provisional  triumvirate  of  Para- 
guayans, but  the  country  was  really  under  their 
military  government  until  after  the  death  of  Lopez. 
A  new  constitution  was  proclaimed  on  November 
25,  1870,  but  it  was  not  until  a  year  later  that  the 
provisional  government  was  superseded  by  Salvador 
Jovellanos,  the  first  President.  The  new  President 
had  no  elements  with  which  to  establish  a  govern- 
ment,— neither  money  nor  men.  The  country  Para- 
guayans refused  to  recognise  his  authority  and  he 
was  shut  up  in  Asuncion.  There  were  three  so- 
called  revolutions  in  1872,  which  were  suppressed 
by  the  Brazilian  troops.  The  country  really  re- 
mained under  a  Brazilian  protectorate  for  the  first 
few  years  after  the  war,  and  the  government  was 
largely  a  convenience  to  make  treaties  and  to  try  to 
place  loans  abroad.  Toward  the  end  of  1874  Jovel- 
lanos was  succeeded  by  Gill,  and  by  1876  the  country 
was  finally  enjoying  peace  and  freedom  from  foreign 


222  PARAGUAY 

control.  The  integrity  of  Paraguay  and  her  con- 
tinuance as  an  independent  power  had  been  mutually 
guaranteed  by  Brazil  and  Argentina  when  they  be- 
gan the  war  against  Lopez,  and  neither  of  them 
could  afford  to  let  the  other  take  possession  of  her 
territory.  So  Paraguay  was  left  substantially  in- 
tact, although  she  was  compelled  to  give  up  the 
territorial  claims  the  Lopezes  had  so  long  made 
against  Brazil  and  the  Argentine.  The  latter  even 
submitted  to  arbitration  her  right  to  a  portion  of 
the  Chaco  north  of  the  Pilocomayo.  President 
Hayes  was  the  arbitrator  and  he  decided  in  favour 
of  Paraguay  in  1878.  In  the  treaty  of  peace  Para- 
guay had  agreed  to  bear  the  war  expenses  of  the 
allies  and  these  immense  sums  are  still  nominally 
due  from  her.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  has  not 
been  able  to  pay  anything  thereon,  and  the  matter 
of  forgiving  the  debt  is  one  frequently  discussed  in 
Brazil. 

Population  rapidly  increased  after  peace  was  thor- 
oughly established,  and  has  more  than  doubled  in 
the  last  thirty  years.  Li  the  late  eighties  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Buenos  Aires  boom  extended  to  Para- 
guay, and  the  government  offered  great  inducements 
to  attract  immigration.  The  movement  was  not 
very  successful,  but  it  had  the  indirect  effect  of 
transferring  great  tracts  of  land  from  government 
to  private  ownership.  Previously,  two-thirds  of 
the  land  belonged  to  the  State.  One  of  the  colo- 
nies was  composed  of  socialists  from  Australia  who 
promptly  split  on  their  arrival  over  the  question  of 
total    abstinence.       Those    who    insisted    on    being 


PAI^AGUAY  SINCE    1870  223 

allowed  to  drink  were  obliged  to  leave.  Subse- 
quently, disagreements  about  doctrine  and  the  ap- 
plication of  the  principles  of  socialism  drove  out 
others.  The  soil  of  Paraguay  is  marvellously  fer- 
tile, but  its  isolation  and  the  want  of  markets  for 
the  national  products  make  it  unattractive  to  Euro- 
pean immigrants. 

Happily  Paraguay  has  not  suffered  from  civil  dis- 
orders during  the  slow  process  of  national  regenera- 
tion which  has  been  going  on  since  1870.  Most  of 
the  Presidents  have  served  out  their  full  four-years 
term,  and  the  one  or  two  changes  which  have  oc- 
curred have  not  been  accompanied  by  any  blood- 
shed or  interruption  in  administration.  The  chief 
difficulties  of  the  government  have  been  financial. 
Revenue  is  small  and  paper  currency  has  been  issued 
until  it  is  at  a  discount  of  several  hundred  per  cent, 
compared  with  its  nominal  value  in  gold;  but  since 
foreign  commerce  is  inconsiderable  and  the  popula- 
tion lives  off  the  products  of  its  own  farms  the  re- 
sults of  inflation  have  not  been  so  disastrous  as  they 
might  have  been  in  a  commercial  country. 

The  wave  of  twentieth-century  progress  and  im- 
migration may  strike  this  Arcadian  region  at  any 
moment,  but  up  to  the  present  time  the  body  of  the 
Paraguayans  live  much  as  their  ancestors.  Exist- 
ence can  be  maintained  with  hardly  an  effort ;  the 
people  can  always  get  oranges  in  default  of  more 
nourishing  food;  the  climate  is  lovely;  the  forests 
surrounding  the  peasant's  cabin  beautiful.  Why 
should  a  Paraguayan  work  when  he  can  live  happily 
and  comfortably  without  labour,  merely  to  procure 


224  PARAGUAY 

things  which  to  him  are  superfluities?  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  bulk  of  the  Paraguayan  people 
are  descended  from  the  Indians  which  were  found 
crowded  into  this  garden  spot  three  centuries  ago 
by  the  Spaniards  and  the  Jesuits.  They  have  never 
lost  their  simple,  submissive,  stoical  character,  and 
the  rule  of  the  three  dictators  did  not  tend  to  change 
them.  The  modern  improvements  of  which  they 
saw  most  during  the  reign  of  Lopez  were  muskets 
and  cannon,  and  they  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  pre- 
ferring old-fashioned  ways  after  their  experience 
during  the  war.  Though  the  nation  was  almost 
destroyed,  the  surviving  remnants  show  the  same 
characteristics  which  distinguished  their  ancestors. 
The  new  Paraguay,  however,  is  not  ruled  by  any 
bloody-minded  despot,  and  the  military  possibilities 
of  the  people  will  never  again  be  a  menace  to  the 
liberties  of  the  surrounding  nations.  Rather  is  the 
present  ruling  class  disposed  to  welcome  foreign  in- 
fluences and  immigration,  and  this  beautiful,  fertile, 
and  easily  accessible  country  stands  open  to  the 
world. 


URUGUAY 


225 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTION 


THE  most  fertile  parts  of  the  globe  have  always 
been  fought  for  the  most.  Uruguay  has  been 
the  Flanders  of  South  America.  Her  admirable  com- 
mercial position  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Plate  has 
made  her  capital  one  of  the  great  emporiums  of  the 
continent.  On  the  track  of  the  world's  commerce, 
open  to  the  currents  of  intellectual  and  industrial 
life  which  sweep  from  Europe  into  the  luxuriant 
country  of  the  southern  half  of  South  America  or 
around  to  the  Pacific,  her  people  have  always  been 
in  the  vanguard  of  Spanish-American  civilisation. 
Her  productive,  well-watered,  and  gently  rolling 
plains  are  well  adapted  for  agriculture  and  unsur- 
passed for  pasturage.  Here  the  Indians  struggled 
hardest  to  maintain  themselves  and  longest  resisted 
the  Spanish  conquest.  From  colonial  times,  Argen- 
tines have  crowded  in  from  the  west,  Brazilians  from 
the  north,  and  I^uenos  Aireans  and  Europeans  from 
the  coast,  until  this  favoured  spot  has  become  the 
most  thickly  populated  country  of  South  America. 
The  very  strategic  and  industrial  desirability  of 
227 


228  URUGUA  y 

this  region,  and  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be  in- 
vaded, have  made  it  the  scene  of  constant  armed 
conflict.  Uruguay  has  been  the  cockpit  of  the 
southern  half  of  the  continent,  and  its  people  have 
been  lighting  continually  through  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  during  which  the  country  has  been 
inhabited.  They  fought  for  their  independence 
against  the  Spaniards,  then  against  the  Buenos 
Aireans,  then  against  the  Brazilians,  then  against 
the  Buenos  Aireans  again,  and  in  the  intervals  they 
have  fought  pretty  constantly  among  themselves. 
In  colonial  times  Montevideo  was  Spain's  chief  fort- 
ress on  this  coast,  and  that  city  has  always  been  the 
favourite  refuge  for  the  unsuccessful  revolutionists 
and  exiles  from  the  neighbouring  states.  The  blood 
of  the  bravest  and  most  turbulent  Argentines  and 
Rio  Grandenses  has  constanth^  mixed  with  its  popu- 
lation. By  habit,  tradition,  and  inheritance  the  older 
generation  of  Uruguayans  in  both  city  and  country 
are  warlike. 

Though  the  military  spirit  had  been  vastly  stimu 
lated  by  peculiar  political  and  racial  circumstances, 
in  later  times  commercialism  has  been  nourished  by 
geographical  situation  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
and  by  European  immigration.  The  interplay  of 
these  contending  forces  has  been  producing  a  marked 
people — a  vigorous,  turbulent  race  whose  energies 
have  apparently  been  chiefly  employed  in  war,  but 
who  have  found  time  in  the  intervals  of  foreign 
and  civil  conflict  to  make  their  country  one  of  the 
wealthiest  and  most  industrially  progressive  coun- 
tries in  South  America.     They  are  like  the  Dutch 


INTRODUCTION  229 

in  their  turbulence  and  in  their  eagerness  to  make 
money;  and  they  are  also  like  the  Dutch  in  their 
determination  to  maintain  at  all  hazards  their  sepa- 
rate national  existence.  Nevertheless,  the  origin  of 
Uruguay  was  artificial.  The  reason  for  the  coun- 
try's separation  from  Buenos  Aires  was  that  Brazil 
regarded  it  as  unsafe  to  permit  Argentina  to  spread 
north  of  the  Plate. 

The  territory  of  Uruguay  is  that  irregular  polygon 
which  is  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  Plate  estuary; 
on  the  west  by  the  Uruguay  River ;  on  the  south-east 
by  the  Atlantic;  and  on  the  north-east  by  the  arti- 
ficial line  which  separates  it  from  Bcazil.  Though 
the  most  favoured  in  soil,  climate,  and  geographical 
position,  it  is  the  smallest  country  in  South  America, 
the  area  being  only  seventy-three  thousand  square 
miles.  In  prehistoric  days,  when  a  vast  inland  sea 
occupied  what  is  now  the  Argentine  pampa,  Uru- 
guay was  the  northern  shore  of  the  great  strait  which 
opened  into  the  pampean  sea.  It  is  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  eastern  continental  uplift  of  South 
America.  The  last  outlying  ramparts  of  the  Bra- 
zilian mountain  system,  greatly  eroded  and  planed 
down  into  low-swelling  masses  little  elevated  above 
the  sea,  run  south-west  from  Rio  Grande  into  Uru- 
guay, dipping  into  the  Plate  at  the  southern  border. 
The  north  shore  of  the  Plate  estuary  is  bold,  and 
not  flat  as  is  the  opposite  shore  of  Buenos  Aires. 
There  are,  however,  no  mountains,  properly  so- 
called,  in  Uruguay,  and  nearly  the  whole  surface  is 
a  succession  of  gently  undulating  plains  and  broad 
ridges  intersected  by  countless  streams,  and  covered, 


230  URUGUAY 

for  the  most  part,  with  luxuriant  pasture.  The 
abundance  of  wood  and  water  is  an  immense  ad- 
vantage to  settlers,  whether  pastoral  or  agricultural. 
The  extreme  south-western  corner,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Uruguay  River,  is  alluvial.  On  the  Atlantic 
coast  there  are  level,  marshy  plains,  due  to  the  slow 
secular  rising  of  the  land  and  consequent  baring  of 
the  ocean's  bed. 

The  country  is  easily  penetrable  in  every  part. 
There  are  no  mountain  ridges  or  dense  forests  to 
interrupt  travel,  and  most  of  the  rivers  are  easily 
fordable.  On  the  west,  the  broad  flood  of  the  Uru- 
guay River  gives  easy  communication  to  the  ocean, 
while  it  affords  protection  against  sudden  invasions 
from  the  Argentine  province  of  Entre  Rios.  The 
low  and  sandy  foreshore  of  the  Atlantic  has  no  har- 
bours, but  after  rounding  Cape  Santa  Maria  and 
entering  the  estuary  of  the  Plate,  there  are  several 
bays  which  afford  some  shelter  for  shipping.  Mal- 
donado,  Montevideo,  and  Colonia  are  the  principal 
ports,  but  the  extreme  shallowness  of  the  Plate  pre- 
vents them  from  being  classed  as  first-rate  harbours 
for  modern  vessels.  At  Montevideo  itself,  large 
modern  steamers  must  anchor  several  miles  out. 

Possibly  the  present  territory  of  Uruguay  was 
reached  by  the  Portuguese  navigators  who  recon- 
noitred the  coast  of  Brazil  in  the  first  few  years  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  but  they  certainly  made  no 
settlements  and  left  no  clear  record  of  their  voyag- 
ings.  In  1515,  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  Grand  Pilot  of 
Spain,  was  sent  out  by  Charles  V.  to  reconnoitre 
the   Brazilian   coast  in   Spanish   interests.     He  did 


232  URUGUA  V 

not  land  on  the  shore  of  Brazil  proper,  but  kept  on 
to  the  south  until  he  reached  Cape  Santa  Maria, 
which  marks  the  northern  side  of  the  entrance  to 
the  river  Plate.  To  his  left  hand  stretched  beyond 
the  horizon  a  flood  of  yellow  fresh  water  flowing 
gently  over  a  shifting,  sandy  bottom  nowhere  more 
than  a  few  fathoms  below  the  surface.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  he  was  out  of  the  ocean  and  sailing  up  a 
river  of  such  magnitude  as  had  never  been  dreamed 
of  before.  He  followed  along  the  coast,  skirting 
the  whole  southern  boundar}^  of  what  is  now  the  re- 
public of  Uruguay  and  finally  reached  the  head  of 
the  estuary.  Directly  from  the  north  the  Uruguay, 
a  river  five  miles  wide,  clear  and  deep,  seemed  a 
continuation  of  the  Plate,  but  from  the  west  the  nu- 
merous channels  of  the  Parana  delta  poured  in  an 
immense  muddy  discharge  double  the  volume  of 
the  wider  river.  At  the  junction  was  an  island  which 
Solis  named  Martin  Garcia  after  his  pilot.  He 
resolved  to  take  possession  of  the  country  in  the 
name  of  the  Crown  of  Castile,  and  to  explore  the 
coast.  He  disembarked  with  nine  companions  on 
the  Uruguayan  shore:  here  the  little  party  was  un- 
expectedly attacked  by  Indians;  Solis  and  all  his 
men  but  one  were  killed,  and  the  ships  sailed  back 
to  Spain  without  their  commander. 

Three  years  later  Ferdinand  Magellan,  on  his 
epoch-making  voyage  around  the  world,  visited  the 
coast  of  Uruguay,  On  the  15th  of  January,  1520, 
he  came  in  sight  of  a  high  hill  overlooking  a  com- 
modious bay.  This  he  called  Montevideo — a  name 
which   has   been   extended  to   the  city  which  long 


INTRODUCTION  233 

after  grew  up  on  the  other  side  of  the  harbour. 
Magellan  ascended  the  estuary,  hoping  that  he  might 
find  a  passage  through  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  after 
he  had  entered  the  Uruguay  its  clear  water,  rapid 
current,  and  want  of  tides  convinced  him  that  it 
was  only  an  ordinary  river  and  not  a  strait. 

Spain  determined  to  take  possession  of  the  Plate, 
and  in  1526  sent  out  an  expedition  for  that  purpose 
under  Diego  Garcia.  At  the  same  time  Sebastian 
Cabot  was  preparing  another  expedition,  which  was 
ordered  to  follow  in  Magellan's  track  and  to  make 
observations  of  longitude  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
South  America  and  in  the  East  Indies.  Spain  and 
Portugal  iiad  already  begun  to  dispute  about  the 
correct  location  of  the  line  which  they  had  agreed 
should  divide  the  world  into  a  Spanish  and  a  Portu- 
guese hemisphere,  and  which  was  believed  to  pass 
near  the  Plate.  Garcia  was  delayed  on  the  coast  of 
Brazil,  so  Cabot  reached  the  mouth  of  the  estuary 
first.  The  latter  had  encountered  bad  weather  and 
lost  his  best  ship,  and  when  he  sighted  the  coast  of 
Uruguay  his  men  were  discouraged.  They  remained 
in  the  mouth  of  the  river  for  some  time,  and  to  their 
surprise  a  solitary  Spaniard  was  encountered  on  the 
shore,  who  proved  to  be  the  only  survivor  of  the  party 
that  had  gone  ashore  with  Solis  ten  years  before. 

Soon  Cabot  and  his  men  heard  tales  of  silver 
mines  far  up  the  river,  and  of  the  existence  of  a 
great  civilised  empire  on  its  remote  headwaters. 
Silver  ornaments  were  shown  which  had  come  down 
hand  to  hand  from  Peru  or  Bolivia.  Cabot  deter- 
mined to  abandon  his  commission  to  the  Moluccas, 


234  URUGUAY 

and  to  find  the  country  whence  the  silver  came. 
Naturally,  his  first  effort  was  directed  up  the  broad 
channel  of  the  Uruguay,  but  on  ascending  this  river 
it  was  soon  evident  that  the  mines  and  civilised 
country  he  was  seeking  did  not  lie  on  its  banks. 
Fifty  miles  up  the  river  at  San  Salvador  the  Span- 
iards attempted  to  establish  a  little  post  which  is 
sometimes  referred  to  as  the  earliest  settlement  in 
Uruguay  or  Argentina.  It  was  probably  intended 
as  a  mere  supply  depot  and  point  of  refuge,  con- 
veniently near  the  sea  to  aid  the  up-river  expedition. 
However,  the  warlike  Indians  of  Uruguay  soon  left 
no  trace  of  it.  Cabot  entered  the  Parana,  where  he 
spent  three  years  in  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  reach 
Bolivia.  He  and  Garcia  sailed  back  to  Spain  with- 
out leaving  even  a  settlement  behind  them,  but 
they  were  thoroughly  convinced  that  an  adequate 
expedition  could  find  the  silver  country. 

The  tribes  who  inhabited  Uruguay  were  the  fiercest 
Indians  encountered  by  the  conquerors  of  South 
America.  For  two  centuries  they  succeeded  in  pre- 
venting the  establishment  of  settlements  in  their 
territory  and  kept  out  Spanish  intruders  at  the  point 
of  the  sword.  The  Spaniards  g4-eatly  coveted  the 
north  bank  of  the  Plate  and  made  effort  after  effort 
to  get  a  foothold  there,  but  these  savages  managed 
to  maintain  themselves  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
in  the  very  face  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  river  shore 
itself  was  the  last  accessible  and  fertile  region  to  be 
subjected  to  the  whites,  A  century  elapsed  after 
the  foundation  of  Buenos  Aires  before  Colonia  was 
occupied  by  the  Portuguese,  and  another  fifty  years 


INTRODUCTION  235 

went  by  before  Montevideo  had  been  settled  and 
fortified.  Uruguay  in  pre-Spanish  times,  as  well  as 
since,  was  a  meeting-ground  for  different  peoples. 
One  after  another  the  Guarany  tribes  crowded  into 
this  favoured  region  from  the  north  and  west,  and 
the  old  inhabitants  had  to  fight  and  conquer,  or  be 
thrust  into  the  sea.  The  bravest,  best  armed,  and 
best  organised  tribes  survived  in  the  harsh  struggle. 
Of  the  Indians  inhabiting  Uruguay  when  the  Span- 
iards discovered  the  Plate,  the  principal  ones  were 
the  Charruas.  They  occupied  a  zone  extending 
around  from  the  Atlantic,  along  the  Plate,  and  a 
short  distance  up  the  Uruguay.  This  strong  and 
valiant  race  never  submitted  to  the  Spaniards,  and 
when  at  last  they  were  defeated  and  crowded  back 
from  the  coast  well  on  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
they  retired  to  the  north  and  maintained  their  free- 
dom for  many  years.  They  belonged  to  the  great 
family  of  Tupi-Guaranies,  who  occupied  most  of 
eastern  South  America  at  the  white  man's  advent, 
but  they  were  more  nomadic  in  their  habits  and  had 
developed  the  art  of  war  to  greater  perfection  than 
the  mother  tribes  of  the  more  tropical  parts  of  South 
America. 

In  their  fights  against  the  Spaniards,  they  some- 
times gathered  armies  of  several  hundreds  which 
fought  with  a  rude  sort  of  discipline,  forming  in 
column  and  attacking  in  mass  with  clubs  after  dis- 
charging their  arrows  and  stones.  Possibly  they 
learned  some  of  their  tactics  from  the  white  men, 
but  it  is  certain  that  before  the  invasion  they  had 
developed  a  tribal  organisation  which  enabled  them 


236  URUGUAY 

to  bring  far  larger  bodies  into  the  field  than  the 
tribes  to  the  north,  and  that  soon  after  the  arrival 
of  the  whites  they  learned  the  military  uses  of  the 
horse.  Personal  bravery  and  fortitude  were  the  vir- 
tues most  admired  among  the  Charruas,  and  they 
chose  their  chiefs  from  those  who  had  most  distin- 
guished themselves  in  battle.  They  did  not  practise 
cannibalism  like  their  brother  Guaranies  on  the  Bra- 
zilian coast ;  they  killed  defective  children  at  birth ; 
they  were  moderate  in  their  eating,  lived  in  huts, 
and  in  winter  covered  themselves  with  the  skins  of 
animals. .  Altogether,  they  seem  to  have  much  re- 
sembled the  more  warlike  tribes  among  the  North 
American  Indians  and  to  have  made  the  same  effect- 
ive resistance  to  the  whites  as  did  the  Iroquois  or 
Creeks.  Such  a  fierce  and  indomitable  people  ter- 
rorised the  Creoles,  and  settlement  proceeded  on 
lines  of  less  resistance.  The  coast  of  Uruguay  was 
long  known  as  the  abode  of  red  demons  who  showed 
little  mercy  to  the  adventurous  white  who  dared 
build  a  cabin  on  the  shore,  or  ride  the  plains  in  chase 
of  cattle.  The  forts  established  from  time  to  time 
by  the  Spanish  authorities  in  the  early  days  were  in- 
variably starved  out  and  abandoned,  and  the  white 
man  obtained  a  foothold  only  after  the  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  governments  had  fortified  towns  with 
walls,  ditches,  and  artillery,  which  could  be  supplied 
with  provisions  from  the  water  side,  and  after  Entre 
Rios  had  been  overrun  by  the  gauchos. 

Warned  by  the  experiences  of  Solis  and  Cabot  on 
the  north  shore,  Mendoza,  the  first  adelantado  of 
the  Plate,  on  his  arrival  in  1535,  selected  the  south 


INTRODUCTION  2^7 

bank  of  the  river  as  the  site  of  the  fortified  port 
which  he  proposed  to  establish  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Parana  as  a  base  for  his  projected  expedition  up  the 
river.  His  effort  failed  completely;  he  abandoned 
Buenos  Aires,  and  the  remnants  of  his  expedition 
fled  to  Paraguay  and  founded  Asuncion.  In  1573 
Zarate,  the  third  adelantado,  made  a  serious  effort 
to  establish  a  post  in  Uruguay.  He  had  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  well-armed  Spanish  soldiers,  more 
than  the  number  with  which  Pizarro  had  conquered 
the  empire  of  Peru,  but  they  were  not  enough  to 
make  any  impression  on  the  Charruas.  A  company 
of  forty  men  hunting  wood  was  set  upon  and  mas- 
sacred, and  when  the  main  body  tried  to  avenge  this 
defeat,  it,  too,  was  driven  back  and  only  escaped  to 
the  island  of  Martin  Garcia  after  losing  a  hundred 
men.  The  survivors  were  rescued  by  Garay,  the  most 
expert  and  successful  Indian  fighter  of  the  time. 

This  experienced  and  far-sighted  officer  wisely 
left  the  Charruas  alone  and  devoted  his  efforts  to 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  where,  in  1580,  he 
founded  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires.  Hernandarias, 
the  Creole  governor  of  Buenos  Aires,  who  shares 
with  Garay  the  honour  of  establishing  the  Span- 
ish power  in  Argentina,  and  who  had  already  de- 
feated the  Pampa  Indians  from  the  Great  Chaco  in 
the  north  to  the  Tandil  Range  in  Buenos  Aires 
province,  attempted,  in  the  early  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  to  subdue  the  Charruas.  He 
disembarked  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men  in  the 
western  part  of  Uruguay.  Few  details  of  the  cam- 
paign which  followed  have  been  preserved,  but  it  is 


238  URVGUA  Y 

certain  that  the  Spanish  force  was  destroyed  and 
that  Hernandarias  himself  barely  escaped  with  his 
life.  Thenceforth,  for  more  than  a  century,  the 
Spaniards  made  no  serious  attempts  to  interfere 
with  the  Charruas;  the  coast  of  Uruguay  was 
shunned  by  European  ships,  and  the  interior  re- 
mained absolutely  unknown. 

It  is  probable,  although  not  certain,  that  the 
Jesuits  on  the  Upper  Uruguay  established  some  vil- 
lages of  peaceable  Indians  in  the  north-western  corner 
of  Uruguay'proper,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  A  few  Indians,  it  is  certain,  gathered 
under  Jesuit  control  on  an  island  in  the  Lower  Uru- 
guay, some  fifty  miles  above  Martin  Garcia,  about 
1650.  This  was  known  as  the  Pueblo  of  Soriano, 
and  is  often  referred  to  by  Uruguayan  historians  as 
the  first  permanent  settlement  in  their  country. 
However,  no  real  progress  was  made  toward  getting 
possession  of  Uruguay.  The  Charruas  proved  re- 
fractory to  Jesuit  influence,  and  only  the  milder 
Yaros  and  the  tribes  on  the  Brazilian  border  could 
be  converted. 

The  horses  and  cattle  which  the  Spaniards  had 
introduced  multiplied  into  hundreds  of  thousands 
and  roamed  undisturbed  over  the  rolling,  grassy 
plains  of  Uruguay,  and  occasionally  parties  of  Creoles 
would  land  on  the  shore  of  the  Plate  and  at  the  risk 
of  their  lives  kill  some  steers  and  strip  them  of  their 
hides.  As  time  went  on,  the  Indians  became  used 
to  the  white  men  and  some  trading  sprang  up,  but 
for  a  full  century  after  Buenos  Aires  had  been  in  ex- 
istence Uruguay  remained  unsettled  by  civilised  man. 


CHAPTER  II 

PORTUGUESE  AGGRESSIONS  AND  THE  SETTLEMENT 
OF  THE   COUNTRY 


IN  1680  the  governor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  sent  some 
ships  and  a  force  of  soldiers  to  the  Plate,  with 
orders  to  occupy  a  point  on  the  north  bank  in  the 
name  of  the  king  of  Portugal.  Spain  claimed  that 
her  dominions  extended  as  far  up  the  coast  as  the 
southern  border  of  the  present  state  of  Sao  Paulo, 
and  Portugal  was  equally  stubborn  in  insisting  that 
her  rightful  territory  extended  west  and  south  as  far 
as  the  mouth  of  the  Uruguay.  Neither  country  had 
made  any  settlements  in  the  disputed  region,  and 
Portugal  had  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the 
negligence  of  the  Spanish  government  and  be  first 
in  the  field.  To  establish  a  post  only  twenty  miles 
from  the  capital  of  the  Spanish  possessions  and 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  south  of  the  last  Portu- 
guese town  seemed  an  audacious  step,  but  its  success 
would  secure  for  Portugal  the  whole  intermediate 
territory,  as  well  as  give  her  a  port  which  would  in- 
sure her  merchants  the  command  of  the  trade  of  the 
Plate  valley. 

239 


240  URUGUAY 

The  Portuguese  commander  landed  unopposed  on 
the  shore  of  the  estuary  directly  opposite  Buenos 
Aires,  and  immediately  began  to  throw  up  walls, 
dig  a  ditch,  and  lay  out  a  town  called  Colonia. 
When  the  news  reached  Buenos  Aires,  the  indignant 
governor  raised  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  sixty 
Spaniards  and  three  thousand  Indians,  crossed  the 
river,  and  fell  upon  the  little  body  of  Portuguese 
in  the  midst  of  their  delving  and  shovelling.  The 
attack  was  at  first  repulsed,  but  superior  numbers 
were  soon  effective.  The  enemy  surrendered,  and 
the  Spaniards  threw  down  the  walls  and  destroyed 
the  beginnings  of  the  town.  The  Portuguese  gov- 
ernment protested,  claiming  that  the  governor's 
action  was  a  wilful  and  inexcusable  aggression 
against  the  forces  of  a  friendly  power  operating  in 
territory  which  had  never  been  occupied  by  Spain. 
The  Madrid  government  disavowed  the  act,  and  the 
Portuguese  resumed  possession  of  Colonia  in  1683. 
They  rebuilt  its  walls  and  made  the  place  safe  against 
the  attacks  of  Indians.  At  once  it  became  a  centre 
for  contraband  traffic.  The  Spanish  laws  and  co- 
lonial policy  forbade  vessels  to  land  at  Buenos  Aires. 
In  defiance  of  the  prohibition,  illegal  trade  had  been 
carried  on,  but  the  lading  of  vessels  lying  in  the 
Buenos  Aires  roads  was  conducted  at  great  risk. 
Officials  might  order  the  seizure  of  the  goods,  and 
enormous  bribes  had  to  be  paid  to  functionaries; 
often  the  governor  was  the  smuggler's  partner,  but 
he  was  a  partner  who  demanded  an  exorbitant  share 
of  the  profit.  In  Colonia,  however,  merchandise 
could  be  safely  stored  and  embarked  at  leisure,  so 


PORTUGUESE  AGGRESSIONS  24 1 

the  latter  place  rapidly  absorbed  the  export  trade 
and  became  an  entrepot  for  imported  goods  destined 
for  sale  in  the  valley  of  the  Plate  and  in  Bolivia. 

Spain  had  restored  Colonia  under  protest  and 
without  prejudice,  explicitly  reiterating  her  own 
claim  to  exclusive  proprietorship  of  the  north  bank 
of  the  Plate.  The  diplomatists  agreed  that  the 
question  of  right  should  remain  open  for  determina- 
tion at  some  future  day,  but  all  Spanish  subjects 
considered  the  existence  of  Colonia  as  a  violation 
of  Spanish  soil,  and  whenever  a  war  broke  out  in 
Europe  between  the  mother  countries,  the  Buenos 
Aireans  were  in  the  habit  of  promptly  sending  an 
expedition  across  the  river  to  capture  the  Portuguese 
town.  Three  times  was  it  wrenched  from  the  Portu- 
guese, and  three  times  was  it  restored  on  the  con- 
clusion of  peace. 

In  1705,  Spain  and  Portugal  being  engaged  in 
war,  the  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  dislodged  the 
Portuguese  garrison  from  Colonia  and  the  place  re- 
mained in  Spanish  possession  until  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  Their  eleven  years' 
possession  at  last  convinced  the  Spaniards  that  the 
settlement  of  the  north  bank  was  feasible.  By  1708 
the  Charrua  raids  had  so  far  lost  their  terrors  that 
the  Jesuit  mission  at  Soriano  was  safely  removed 
from  the  island  in  the  Uruguay  River  to  the  main- 
land opposite.  The  trade  in  Uruguayan  hides  and 
horsehair  increased,  and  private  expeditions  hence- 
forth frequently  crossed  the  estuary. 

It  had  long  been  known  that  the  best  harbours 
on  the  Uruguayan  coast  were  at  Montevideo  and 

VOL.  I.— 16. 


242  URUGUA  Y 

Maldonado,  where  partially  sheltered  bays,  with 
water  deep  enough  for  the  vessels  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  were  overlooked  by  beautiful  and  defensible 
town  sites.  Montevideo  is  a  hundred  miles  east  of 
Colonia,  and  Maldonado  another  hundred  miles 
farther  on  toward  the  Atlantic.  The  advisability 
of  seizing  and  fortifying  one  or  both  of  these  places 
was  frequently  mooted  in  Buenos  Aires,  after  the 
restoration  of  Colonia  in  1716.  Nothing,  however, 
was  done  until  1723,  when  word  came  that  the 
Portuguese  had  again  anticipated  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities and  had  occupied  and  begun  to  fortify 
Montevideo  for  themselves.  The  governor  of  Bue- 
nos Aires  immediately  sent  an  overwhelming  force 
which  compelled  the  Portuguese  to  retire.  This 
time  neither  dilatory  diplomacy  nor  ofificial  inepti- 
tude prevented  his  doing  the  right  thing  to  save  Uru- 
guay to  the  Spanish  Crown,  and  the  following  year 
he  finished  the  Portuguese  walls  at  Montevideo,  and 
in  1726  the  ground  plan  of  a  town  was  laid  out 
and  a  few  families  were  brought  from  Buenos  Aires 
and  the  Canary  Islands.  Within  a  few  years  there 
were  a  thousand  people  in  the  place,  and  it  had  been 
surrounded  with  walls  and  defended  by  artillery. 
Four  years  later,  Maldonado  was  established.  No 
serious  trouble  was  experienced  with  the  Indians  at 
either  place,  and  the  Spaniards  began  to  spread  their 
ranches  over  the  neighbouring  south-eastern  part  of 
Uruguay. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  this  important  event, 
the  Creoles  from  Santa  Fe  province  crossed  over 
into  the  wide  plains  which  lie  between  the  Parand 


244  URUGUAY 

and  the  Uruguay,  and  defeated  the  Charrua  tribes 
who  had  kept  the  Spanish  out  of  that  region  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  Soon  the  gauchos  were  in 
possession  of  Entre  Rios  as  far  as  the  Uruguay. 
The  Charruas  east  of  the  Uruguay  could  not  pre- 
vent the  gauchos  from  making  their  way  across  the 
river  to  build  their  cabins  and  ride  the  plains  after 
cattle.  The  settlement  of  western  Uruguay  began, 
but,  except  Colonia  and  Soriano,  no  towns  were 
founded.  The  half-Indian  gauchos  lived  a  semi- 
nomadic  life  and  needed  and  received  little  help  from 
the  authorities  in  their  constant  fights  against  the 
Indians. 

Shortly  after  the  foundation  of  Montevideo,  a 
Portuguese  expedition  tried  to  recover  the  place,  but 
it  was  found  to  be  too  strong  to  attack,  and  the 
party  resolved  to  establish  a  town  farther  up  the 
coast.  Three  hundred  miles  to  the  north-west  is 
found  the  only  opening  into  the  great  system  of 
lagoons  which  stretches  along  the  seaward  side  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  at  that  strategic  point  the 
Portuguese,  in  1735,  built  a  fort  and  town. 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  situa- 
tion between  Spain  and  Portugal  in  the  whole  region 
between  the  Plate,  the  Uruguay,  and  the  sea  had 
become  very  strained.  Colonia  was  completely  iso- 
lated and  the  Spaniards  controlled  all  the  rest  of 
Uruguay's  western  and  southern  water-front.  The 
Portuguese  settlements  in  the  seaward  half  of  Rio 
Grande  were  prospering  and  multiplying,  soon  to 
furnish  thousands  of  gauchos,  as  ready  as  any  who 
rode  the  Argentine  pampas  to  sally  forth  for  war 


PORTUGUESE  AGGRESSIONS  245 

or  plunder.  The  territory  which  the  Jesuits  had 
held  for  more  than  a  century  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Upper  Uruguay  lay  directly  back  of  these  Portu- 
guese settlements  and  was  more  easily  accessible 
therefrom  than  from  Montevideo.  In  1750  Spain 
agreed  to  exchange  the  Seven  Missions  for  Colonia. 
The  Portuguese  promptly  took  measures  to  secure 
the  ceded  territory,  attacked  the  Indian  villages,  and 
massacred  or  drove  ofT  most  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  Jesuits  vigorously  protested,  and  outraged 
Spanish  public  opinion  demanded  the  abrogation  of 
the  treaty,  so  a  few  years  later  the  desolated  terri- 
tory was  restored  to  Spanish  possession  and  Colonia 
remained  Portuguese, 

In  1762  Spain  and  Portugal  were  again  engaged 
in  war,  and  the  governor  of  Buenos  Aires  attacked 
Colonia  with  a  force  of  twenty-seven  hundred  men 
and  thirty-two  ships.  The  fortifications  were  strong 
and  the  Portuguese  offered  a  tenacious  resistance. 
After  a  well-contested  siege  the  place  surrendered, 
only  to  be  given  back  to  Portugal  the  ensuing  year. 
Meanwhile,  troops  had  been  sent  up  from  Monte- 
video against  Rio  Grande  and  the  Portuguese  settlers 
driven  back  to  the  north-east  corner  of  the  state, 
only  to  rise  again  when  the  Spanish  troops  were  gone 
and  to  begin  a  guerrilla  warfare  which  never  ceased 
until  they  had  regained  their  towns. 

The  eighteenth  century  had  entered  on  its  last 
quarter  before  the  Spanish  home  government  took 
any  real  steps  to  drive  the  Portuguese  out  of  Colonia 
and  to  reclaim  the  disputed  territory  as  far  north  as 
Sao  Paulo,     The  Atlantic  slope  of  Spanish  South 


246  "URUGUAY 

America  was  erected  into  a  Viceroyalty,  and  in 
1777  the  greatest  fleet  and  army  ever  sent  by  Spain 
to  America  reached  Buenos  Aires  under  command 
of  the  new  Viceroy.  The  Portuguese  had  no  forces 
able  to  cope  with  his  army  and  fleet,  and  he  carried 
all  before  him  The  island  of  Santa  Catharina  in 
the  north  of  the  disputed  territory  was  captured, 
Colonia  was  taken,  and  an  army  of  four  thousand 
men  started  on  a  triumphal  march  north-westward 
to  sweep  the  Portuguese  from  the  coast.  The  Span- 
iards were  at  the  gates  of  Rio  Grande  when  news 
came  that  peace  had  been  declared.  Orders  from 
home  compelled  the  Viceroy  to  stop  his  northward 
progress  while  the  diplomats  agreed  on  a  division. 
The  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso  in  the  main  gave  each 
country  the  territory  its  citizens  actually  occupied. 
The  Seven  Missions  remained  Spanish,  and  the 
Portuguese  were  deprived  of  the  southern  half  of 
the  great  lagoon  and  of  Colonia.  Santa  Catharina 
was  restored,  and  the  right  of  Portugal  to  the  vast 
interior  and  to  the  regions  of  the  Upper  Parana  and 
Paraguay  were  confirmed.  Rio  Grande  remained 
Portuguese  and  Uruguay  was  assured  of  being 
thenceforth  and  for  ever  Spanish  in  blood  and  speech. 


J.  fit- 


CHAPTER   III 


THE    REVOLUTION 


WITH  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  Uruguay 
began  her  real  existence.  Montevideo  was 
made  the  greatest  fortress  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
commanded  by  its  own  military  governor,  strongly 
garrisoned  and  provisioned,  and  with  over  one  hun- 
dred cannon  mounted  on  its  walls.  The  Charruas 
had  long  been  driven  back  from  the  coast,  and  as 
soon  as  the  danger  of  Portuguese  interference  was 
over  settlements  spread  rapidly  along  the  whole 
southern  border.  Prior  to  1777  there  were  only 
five  towns  in  Uruguay,  but  within  the  next  five 
years  the  number  tripled.  By  the  year  18 10  there 
were  seventy-five  hundred  people  living  in  the  city 
of  Montevideo,  seventy-five  hundred  in  its  immedi- 
ate district,  and  sixteen  thousand  in  the  outlying 
settlements.  Outside  of  Montevideo,  cattle-herding 
was  the  sole  business,  and  the  people  were  a  hard- 
riding,  meat-eating,  bellicose  race.  Immediately  to 
the  north-east  lived  fifty  thousand  Rio  Grandenses 
of  Portuguese  blood  and  speech,  who,  in  like  sur- 
roundings, had  acquired  the  same  pastoral  and  semi« 

247 


248  URUGUAY 

nomadic  habits  as  their  Argentine  and  Uruguayan 
neighbours,  and  who  constantly  made  incursions 
over  the  Spanish  border.  The  Uruguayan  gauchos 
retaliated,  and  for  nearly  a  century  continuous 
partisan  warfare  went  on,  for  these  half-savage 
cattle-herders  recked  little  of  treaties  or  boundary 
lines.  The  Spanish  guerrillas  bore  the  name  of 
blandcnques,  and  in  this  school  of  arms  the  future 
generals  of  Uruguay's  war  of  independence  were 
trained.  Most  of  the  forays  were  only  for  the  pur- 
pose of  stealing  cattle  or  burning  cabins  built  in 
coveted  regions;  nevertheless,  one  of  these  expedi- 
tions changed  the  nationality  of  a  territory  larger 
than  England.  In  1801  the  Rio  Grandenses  con- 
quered the  Seven  Missions,  thus  doubling  at  a  sin- 
gle stroke  the  area  of  their  own  state  and  reducing 
Uruguay  to  substantially  its  present  dimensions. 

As  the  seat  of  the  largest  Spanish  garrison,  Mon- 
tevideo naturally  became  the  centre  of  pro-Spanish 
feeling  and  influence  in  the  Plate  and  the  home  of 
families  who  boasted  distinguished  Castilian  de- 
scent and  conservati\'e  principles.  In  the  interior 
settlements  Creole  influences  predominated,  and 
the  population  was  substantially  homogeneous  with 
that  of  the  Argentine  provinces  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Uruguay  River.  Between  the  aristocratic 
Montevideans  and  the  gauchos  of  the  country  dis- 
tricts there  was  little  sympathy. 

In  1806,  the  English  captured  Buenos  Aires,  and 
many  Spanish  officials  and  officers  fled  to  Monte- 
video for  refuge.  The  garrison  of  Montevideo  fur- 
nished  troops   and   arms  for  the  expedition  which 


i££^     " 


250  URUGUA  Y 

soon  went  across  the  Plate  and  triumphantly  recap- 
tured Buenos  Aires.  Late  that  same  year,  I^ritish 
troops  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  seized  Maldo- 
nado  harbour  in  eastern  Uruguay.  As  soon  as  re- 
enforcements  arrived  a  movement  was  made  against 
Montevideo.  On  the  14th  of  January,  1807,  the 
city  was  besieged  by  sea  and  land.  The  attacking 
and  defending  forces  were  about  equal  in  number, 
although  the  British  regulars  were  far  superior  in 
discipline  and  effectiveness  to  their  opponents,  half 
of  whom  were  militia.  A  sortie  in  force  was  com- 
pletely defeated,  with  a  loss  of  one  thousand  men, 
and  after  eight  days  of  bombardment  the  British 
effected  a  breach  in  the  wall  and  took  the  town  by 
assault,  the  Spaniards  losing  half  their  force  and  the 
remainder  scattering.  A  great  fleet  of  merchant 
vessels  had  accompanied  the  British  expedition,  and 
as  soon  as  the  town  surrendered  their  goods  were 
landed,  and  the  English  traders  took  possession  of 
the  shops  almost  as  completely  as  the  British  soldiers 
did  of  the  fortifications.  Uruguay  was  opened  up 
to  free  trade,  the  gauchos  were  soon  selling  their 
hides  and  horsehair  for  higher  prices  than  they  had 
ever  received,  and  buying  clothes,  tools,  and  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  civilised  life  at  rates  they 
had  never  dreamed  possible. 

A  few  months  later  the  English  attacked  Buenos 
Aires,  but  were  overwhelmingly  defeated,  and  the 
British  general  found  himself  in  such  an  awkward 
situation  that,  in  order  to  obtain  permission  to  with- 
draw his  army,  he  had  to  agree  to  evacuate  Monte- 
video.    The  convention  was  carried  out  and  the 


THE  REVOLUTION  25  I 

British  soldiers  left  the  Plate  forever,  but  the  British 
merchants  remained  behind.  Although  the  English 
occupation  of  the  city  had  lasted  so  short  a  time,  it 
created  an  unwonted  animation  in  Montevideo  by 
the  establishment  of  a  great  number  of  mercantile 
and  industrial  houses.  From  this  time,  Monte- 
video's commerce  assumed  greater  proportions  and 
it  ecame  a  place  of  real  commercial  importance,  as 
well  as  a  military  post.  Both  city  and  country  had 
tasted  the  delights  of  commercial  freedom,  and  ma- 
terial civilisation  had  received  its  first  great  impulse. 
Elio,  the  Spanish  military  governor  of  Monte- 
video, suspected  the  loyalty  of  Liniers,  the  French- 
man, who,  because  he  had  led  in  the  fighting  against 
the  English,  had  been  created  viceroy  at  Buenos 
Aires.  Spanish  affairs  at  home  were  in  confusion 
and  fast  becoming  worse  confounded.  The  old  king 
had  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son;  civil  war  had 
broken  out  on  the  Peninsula;  the  new  king  had 
been  compelled  by  Napoleon  to  resign,  and  Joseph 
Bonaparte  was  proclaimed  monarch  of  Spain.  The 
Spanish  nation  refused  to  accept  Joseph  and  a  revo- 
lutionary government  was  set  up  in  Seville.  Elio, 
as  a  patriotic  Spaniard,  promptly  swore  allegiance 
to  this  junta,  but  the  Viceroy  and  the  Buenos  Aires 
Creoles  hesitated  as  to  their  course  of  action.  The 
Montevidean  governor  and  the  Buenos  Aires  Vice- 
roy quarrelled ;  the  former  accused  the  latter  of  un- 
faithfulness to  Spain  and  disavowed  his  authority, 
and  the  latter  retaliated  by  issuing  a  decree  deposing 
Elio.  On  receiving  news  of  this  act,  which  was 
strictly  legal  under   Spanish    law,   the   Montevideo 


252  URUGUA  V 

Cabildo  met  in  extraordinary  session  and  appointed 
a  junta,  which  was  to  be  dependent  solely  and 
directly  upon  the  authority  of  the  banished  legiti- 
mate king  and  in  no  way  upon  Buenos  Aires  so 
long  as  Liniers  remained  Viceroy.  Thus  early  did 
Montevideo  act  independently  of  Buenos  Aires. 

Although  the  sentiment  of  loyalty  was  much 
stronger  in  Montevideo  than  in  Buenos  Aires,  the 
English  invasion  was  no  sooner  over  than  there  be- 
came manifest  something  of  the  same  profound 
division  between  Creoles  and  Spaniards.  Three 
years,  however,  passed  without  disturbances;  and 
even  when  the  news  of  the  overthrow  of  the  new 
Spanish  Viceroy  by  the  populace  of  Buenos  Aires 
on  the  25th  of  May,  18 10,  reached  Montevideo,  the 
governor  was  able  to  prevent  any  revolutionary 
manifestations  of  sympathy.  On  the  12th  of  July 
a  small  part  of  the  garrison  rose  in  a  mutiny,  which 
was  easily  suppressed.  In  January,  181 1,  Elio  re- 
turned to  Montevideo  with  a  commission  as  Viceroy 
and  bringing  considerable  re-enforcements.  He  de- 
clared war  on  Creole  revolutionists  at  Buenos  Aires 
and  imprisoned  the  Montevideans  suspected  of  Cre- 
ole sympathies  and  revolutionary  ideas. 

Among  those  wdio  escaped  to  Buenos  Aires  was 
one  destined  to  be  the  founder  of  Uruguayan 
nationality.  This  was  Jos6  Artigas,  then  captain 
of  guerrilla  cavalry.  Although  born  in  Montevideo 
he  had  lived  the  life  of  a  gaucho  from  boyhood,  and 
since  1797  had  been  a  leader  of  the  gaucho  bands 
who  were  continually  fighting  the  Rio  Grandenses. 
He  happened  to  be  in  Colonia  on  the  occasion  of 


THE  REVOLUTION  253 

Elio's  declaration  of  war  against  the  Creoles  and  at 
once  fled  to  Buenos  Aires.  The  junta  there  gave 
him  a  lieutenant-colonel's  commission  and  some 
substantial  help.  The  gauchos  of  the  south-eastern 
part  of  Uruguay  had  meanwhile  risen  against  the 
Spanish  governor,  and  within  a  few  weeks  Artigas 
was  back  on  Uruguayan  soil  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
siderable force,  while  all  around  him  bands  of  gauchos 
under  other  chiefs  were  preparing  to  resist  the  Span- 
iards. His  bravery,  energy,  and  good  luck  in  the 
field,  and  his  ruthless  maintenance  of  discipline, 
gave  him  an  ascendancy  over  all  the  others. 

In  April,  181 1,  Belgrano,  the  chief  general  of 
Buenos  Aires,  arrived  with  re-enforcements.  Shortly 
after,  a  Spanish  detachment,  which  had  reached  the 
western  part  of  Uruguay,  was  captured,  and  the 
gaucho  leaders  advanced  almost  to  the  walls  of 
Montevideo.  A  force  of  one  thousand  Spaniards 
started  out  to  meet  them  and,  on  the  i8th  of  May, 
met  with  complete  defeat  at  the  battle  of  Las 
Piedras.  For  this  victory  Artigas  was  promoted  by 
the  Buenos  Aires  Junta,  and  became  the  greatest 
military  figure  on  the  patriot  side.  With  a  con- 
siderable army  of  gauchos  from  both  banks  of  the 
Uruguay  and  of  patriots  from  Buenos  Aires  he 
began  a  siege  of  Montevideo. 

The  siege,  however,  did  not  last  long.  The  great 
expedition  sent  by  the  patriots  to  Bolivia  was  over- 
whelmingly defeated  in  the  battle  of  Huaqui,  and 
the  Buenos  Aires  Junta,  horribly  alarmed  for  their 
own  safety,  ordered  all  the  troops  under  their  con- 
trol to  return  and  help  defend  that  city.     At  the 


254  URUGUA  y 

same  time  a  Portuguese  army  advanced  from  Brazil 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  saving  Montevideo  from 
being  lost  to  Spain,  but  really  to  take  possession  of 
Uruguay  for  King  John's  own  benefit.  Artigas  was 
compelled  to  retire  to  the  Argentine,  and  Uruguayan 
historians  say  that  on  his  long  retreat  to  the  Uru- 
guay River  he  was  accompanied  by  practically  the 
whole  rural  population  of  the  country.  The  semi- 
nomadic  habits  of  the  gauchos  made  such  a  migra- 
tion easy,  and  they  quickly  found  new  homes  on  the 
opposite  shore  in  Entre  Rios,  whence  it  would  be 
easy  to  return  as  soon  as  the  Portuguese  troops 
retired. 

Considerations  of  international  politics  and  Eng- 
lish pressure  compelled  King  John  to  withdraw  his 
troops  from  Uruguay  in  the  middle  of  the  year 
1812,  and  the  Buenos  Aires  government  immedi- 
ately began  to  assemble  an  army  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Uruguay.  Artigas  was  still  encamped  with 
his  Uruguayan  forces  in  the  same  neighbourhood, 
and  although  he  held  an  Argentine  commission  he 
was  virtually  independent.  The  Argentine  army, 
under  the  command  of  Jos^  Rondeau,  who  in  colon- 
ial days  had  been  captain  of  guerrillas  alongside 
Artigas,  advanced  against  Montevideo,  and  on  the 
last  day  of  181 2  won  the  bloody  battle  of  Cerrito,  in 
sight  of  the  city,  and  shut  the  Spaniards  up  within 
its  walls.  Artigas  followed  and  assisted  in  the  siege, 
but  he  refused  to  unite  his  forces  with  those  of 
Rondeau  until  his  own  claims  should  be  recognised 
and  his  demands  complied  with.  He  assumed  a 
dictatorship    and    sent    delegates   to   Buenos  Aires 


THE  REVOLUTION  2$ 5 

to  adv^ocate  the  formation  of  a  federal  republic,  of 
which  Buenos  Aires  was  to  be  simply  one  member. 
Buenos  Aires  refused  to  receive  his  delegates,  and 
civil  war  broke  out.  Rondeau  adhered  to  the 
Buenos  Aires  interest ;  and  after  a  year  of  disputes, 
in  the  beginning  of  January,  1814,  Artigas  with- 
drew his  own  followers  from  Montevideo,  leaving 
the  partisans  of  Buenos  Aires  to  continue  the  siege 
alone.  In  May  the  celebrated  Irish  admiral,  Wil- 
liam Brown,  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet,  which  had 
hitherto  dominated  the  Plate.  Montevideo's  com- 
munications with  both  land  and  sea  were  shut  off, 
and  the  fortress  shortly  afterwards  surrendered  to 
General  Carlos  Alvear,  the  Argentine  general  who 
was  then  commanding  the  besieging  forces. 

Meanwhile,  Artigas  had  retired  to  the  west,  and 
the  gauchos,  not  only  of  western  Uruguay,  but  also 
of  Entre  Rios,  Corrientes,  the  Missions,  and  Santa 
Fe,  rallied  around  his  standard.  Independent  chiefs 
in  these  various  provinces  had  been  resisting  the 
efforts  of  Buenos  Aires  to  reduce  them  to  obedience. 
Artigas  was,  in  a  way,  recognised  as  their  leader, 
but  only  as  the  greatest  among  equals.  The  con- 
flict with  the  Buenos  Aires  party  went  on  through- 
out the  year  18 14,  and  the  federalists  continually 
gained  ground.  In  January,  181 5,  Fructuoso  Rivera, 
one  of  the  lieutenants  of  Artigas,  defeated  an  Ar- 
gentine force  at  the  battle  of  Guayabos,  and  the 
Buenos  Aires  Junta  was  compelled  to  withdraw  its 
troops  from  Montevideo. 

This,  however,  did  not  amount  to  a  separation  of 
Uruguay  from  the  Confederation.     It  only  marked 


256  URUGUAY 

a  triumph  of  the  provinces  in  their  efforts  to  prevent 
Buenos  Aires  from  estabh'shing  a  centralised  govern- 
ment. Artigas  had  his  friends  in  Entre  Rios,  Cor- 
rientes,  the  Missions,  and  Santa  Fe,  and  even  as  far 
as  Cordoba;  and  Francia,  dictator  of  Paraguay,  was 
another  of  his  alHes  in  this  struggle  against  Buenos 
Aires.  However,  he  was  nothing  more  than  a  mili- 
tary chief,  without  the  capacity  or  even  the  desire  of 
uniting  these  vast  territories  under  a  rational  and 
stable  government. 

At  the  very  height  of  his  power  he  made  the  fatal 
mistake  of  embroiling  himself  with  Brazil.  In  181 5 
he  invaded  the  territory  of  the  Seven  Missions, 
which  the  Rio  Grandenses  had  conquered  fourteen 
years  before.  The  Portuguese  king  retaliated  by 
sending  a  well-equipped  army  of  several  thousand 
men,  and  in  October,  1816,  the  forces  of  Artigas 
were  overwhelmed  and  driven  with  great  slaughter 
from  the  disputed  territory.  Artigas  made  stup- 
endous efforts  to  retrieve  this  loss,  but  the  four 
thousand  men  which  he  assembled  to  resist  the 
Portuguese  army,  which  was  now  advancing  upon 
Montevideo  itself,  were  defeated  and  scattered  in 
January,  1817.  The  Portuguese  occupied  Monte- 
video, and  Artigas  and  his  lieutenants,  Rivera,  La- 
velleja,  and  Oribe,  each  of  whom  later  became  a 
great  figure  in  the  civil  wars,  retreated  to  the  in- 
terior, where  they  maintained  themselves  for  two 
years.  After  many  defeats,  Artigas  himself  lost 
the  support  of  the  chiefs  of  Entre  Rios  and  Santa 
F^.  He  was  finally  driven  out  of  Uruguay  and 
attempted  to   establish   himself   in   the   Argentine 


THE  REVOLUTION' 


257 


provinces,  only  to  be  completely  overwhelmed  by 
his  rivals.  On  the  23rd  of  September,  1820,  he  pre- 
sented himself  with  forty  men,   all  who  remained 


GENERAL   DON  JOSE   GERVASIO    ARTIGAS. 
[From  an  old  wood-cut.] 

faithful  to  him,  at  the  Paraguayan  town  of  Cande- 
laria  on  the  Parana,  begging  hospitality  of  Francia. 


258  URUGUAY 

Francia  granted  him  asylum,  and  this  indomitable 
guerrilla  chief,  who  for  twenty-five  years  had  kept 
the  soil  of  Uruguay  and  of  the  Argentine  meso- 
potamia  soaked  in  blood,  spent  the  rest  of  his  life 
peacefully  cultivating  his  garden  in  the  depths  of 
the  Paraguayan  forests.  He  died  in  1850  at  the  age 
of  eighty-six  years ;  six  years  later  his  remains  were 
brought  from  Paraguay  to  Montevideo  and  interred 
in  the  national  pantheon.  On  the  sarcophagus  are 
engraved  these  words:  "Artigas,  Founder  of  the 
Uruguayan  Nation." 

Rivera  was  the  last  Uruguayan  chief  to  lay  down 
his  arms  before  the  Portuguese.  When  he  surren- 
dered, early  in  1820,  most  of  the  other  leaders  had 
already  given  up  and  accepted  service  in  the  Portu- 
guese army  o|  occupation.  In  182 1,  a  Uruguayan 
Congress,  selected  for  this  purpose,  declared  the 
country  incorporated  with  the  Portuguese  domin- 
ions under  the  name  of  the  Cisplatine  Province.  For 
five  years  Montevideo  and  the  country  remained 
quiet  under  the  Portuguese  dominion,  and  Uruguay 
peacefully  became  a  province  of  Brazil  when  that 
country  declared  her  independence.  The  most  cele- 
brated chiefs  of  the  civil  war  were  officers  in  the 
Brazilian  army,  and  few  external  signs  of  dissatisfac- 
tion were  apparent  Underneath  the  surface,  how- 
ever, fermented  a  hatred  of  the  foreign  rule,  and 
the  proud  Creoles  only  awaited  an  opportunity  to 
revolt. 


CHAPTER    IV 


INDEPENDENCE    AND    CIVIL    WAR 


IN  the  beginning  of  1825  a  group  of  patriots  met  in 
Buenos  Aires  and  planned  an  invasion  of  Uru- 
guayan territory.  Word  was  sent  to  different  chiefs 
in  tiie  country  districts,  and  on  the  night  of  the  19th 
of  April  thirty-three  adventurers,  with  Lavalleja  at 
their  head,  landed  on  the  shore  of  the  river  in  the 
extrenne  south-western  corner  of  the  country.  No 
sooner  had  they  landed  than  the  country  rose;  the 
troops  sent  from  Montevideo  to  meet  the  band  of 
revolutionists  refused  to  fight,  and,  deserting  the 
Brazilian  banner,  joined  their  compatriots.  The 
revolutionists  advanced  east  along  the  Negro  and 
the  Yi  to  Durazno,  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles 
north  of  Montevideo,  where  they  found  Rivera,  then 
general  in  the  Brazilian  service.  He  promptly  de- 
serted and  was  at  once  associated  with  Lavalleja  in 
the  command. 

Lavalleja  advanced  to  the  south,  calling  the 
population  to  arms,  while  the  northern  detachments 
rose  in  response  to  Rivera.  Only  fifteen  days  after 
the  thirty-three  had  crossed  the  Uruguay,  the  flag 

859 


26o  URUGUA  Y 

of  the  revolution  was  floating  over  the  Cerrito  Hill 
in  front  of  Montevideo,  and  Brazilian  power  was 
virtually  confined  to  the  walls  of  that  city  and 
Colonia.  The  military  chiefs  formally  declared 
Uruguay  separated  from  Brazil,  and  proclaimed  its 
reincorporation  with  the  Argentine.  The  number 
of  Brazilians  then  in  Uruguay  was  small,  and  in- 
fantry could  not  be  expected  to  do  much  fighting 
on  'he  plains  against  gaucho  cavalry  led  by  such  ex- 
perienced guerrilla  fighters  as  Rivera  and  Lavalleja. 
A  division  of  Rio  Grandense  cavalry,  under  their 
own  chiefs,  Bento  Manoel  and  Bento  Goncalvez, 
met  the  Uruguayans  at  Sarandi.  The  two  armies 
used  substantially  the  same  methods,  charging  into 
each  other,  sword  in  hand  and  carbine  at  shoulder. 
The  Brazilians  were  caught  in  a  disadvantageous 
position  and  suffered  a  complete  and  bloody  over- 
throw. 

The  result  of  this  battle  was  to  insure  to  the 
revolutionists  the  continuation  of  their  complete 
dominance  in  the  country.  Their  cavalry  bands 
roamed  at  will  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Montevideo. 
Buenos  Aires  received  the  news  with  extravagant 
demonstrations  of  joy,  and  formal  notice  was  given 
to  Brazil  that  Uruguay  would  henceforth  be  recog- 
nised as  an  integral  part  of  the  Argentine  Confeder- 
ation. The  emperor  promptly  responded  with  a 
declaration  of  war.  His  fleet  blockaded  Buenos 
Aires,  while  he  poured  re-enforcements  into  Monte- 
video and  sent  an  army  to  invade  northern  Uruguay. 
Argentine  troops  likewise  swarmed  across  the 
Uruguay  River  into  the  country,  and  the  Brazilians 


INDEPENDENCE  AND    CIVIL   WAR  26 1 

could  make  little  progress.  On  sea  they  were  not 
more  successful,  and  by  the  beginning  of  1826  Ad- 
miral Brown  was  blockading  Colonia  and  menacing 
the  communications  of  Montevideo. 

In  August,  1826,  the  famous  Argentine  general, 
Carlos  Alvear,  took  command  of  the  patriot  forces. 
Jealousies  and  quarrels  had  meantime  broken  out 
between  Lavalleja  and  Rivera.  Alvear  took  the 
former's  side  and  Rivera's  partisans  revolted.  But 
the  arrival  of  more  re-enforcements  for  the  Brazilians 
hushed  up  for  the  moment  the  intestine  quarrels  of 
the  Spanish-Americans.  Alvear  determined  to  carry 
the  war  into  Brazil,  and  early  in  January,  1827,  suc- 
ceeded in  passing  between  the  northern  and  southern 
Brazilian  armies,  and  penetrated  across  the  frontier 
to  the  north-east.  He  had  sacked  Bage,  the  princi- 
pal town  of  that  region,  before  the  Brazilian  general, 
the  Marquis  of  Barbacena,  was  able  to  concentrate 
his  forces  and  start  in  pursuit.  Alvear  turned  north 
toward  the  Missions,  but  he  was  in  a  hostile  country 
where  defeat  meant  total  destruction.  Though  his 
army  numbered  eight  thousand  men  he  had  cut  him- 
self off  from  his  base,  and  an  enemy  in  equal  force 
was  close  at  his  heels.  He  resolved  to  turn  and  give 
battle,  and  on  the  20th  of  February,  1827,  his  army 
met  that  of  Barbacena  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Itu- 
zaingo,  which  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Brazilians. 
Although  Barbacena  was  able  to  withdraw  his  army 
without  material  loss,  and  Alvear  retired  at  once  to 
Uruguayan  soil,  the  Brazilians  were  never  afterwards 
able  to  undertake  a  vigorous  offensive.  The  result 
of  that  battle  insured  that  the  north  bank  of  the 


262  URUGUA  V 

Plate  should  remain  Spanish  in  blood,  language,  and 
government. 

A  few  days  before  Ituzaingo,  Admiral  Brown  had 
won  the  great  naval  fight  of  Juncal  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Uruguay,  and  thenceforth  the  Brazilian 
blockade  of  Buenos  Aires  was  entirely  ineffective. 
If  it  had  not  been  for  the  civil  disturbances  in 
Argentina  that  paralysed  the  Buenos  Aires  govern- 
ment, the  Brazilians  might  have  been  swept  out  of 
Montevideo  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  the 
Argentines  might  have  undertaken  the  conquest  of 
Rio  Grande  itself.  Though  considerable  Argentine 
forces  remained  in  Uruguay  during  1827  and  1828, 
they  put  no  vigour  into  their  operations,  and  on 
their  part  the  Brazilians  were  able  to  do  little  more 
than  hold  Montevideo.  So  hampered  was  Rivada- 
via,  the  president  of  Buenos  Aires,  by  revolts,  up- 
risings, and  disorders  throughout  Argentina  that 
he  thought  himself  obliged  to  agree  to  abandon 
Uruguay.  Public  opinion  in  Argentina  would  not 
accept  the  treaty  which  he  made;  he  was  deposed, 
and  a  leader  of  the  opposite  party  installed  in 
power. 

Rivera,  operating  on  his  own  account,  had  un- 
dertaken a  campaign  against  the  western  Rio 
Grande,  but  so  bitter  was  factional  feeling  that  his 
rival,  Lavalleja,  sent  a  force  to  pursue  and  fight 
him,  while  the  new  Buenos  Aires  government  was 
induced  to  sign  a  treaty  of  peace  largely  because 
Rivera's  success  against  the  Brazilians  might  make 
him  strong  enough  to  be  dangerous.  Both  Brazil  and 
Argentina  were  tired  of  the  tedious,  expensive  war, 


INDEPENDENCE  AND   CIVIL   WAR  263 

and  both  governments  had  preoccupations  within 
their  own  territories.  Through  the  intervention  of 
the  British  Minister  the  terms  were  agreed  upon. 
Brazil  and  Argentina  both  gave  up  their  claims  to 
Uruguay,  the  region  was  erected  into  an  indepen- 
dent republic,  and  Brazil  and  Argentina  pledged 
themselves  to  guarantee  its  independence  during 
five  years. 

At  that  time  Argentina  was  convulsed  by  the 
struggle  between  the  federalists  and  the  unitarians, 
and  the  Uruguayans  were  also  divided  into  two 
camps  —  the  followers  of  Lavalleja  and  those  of 
Rivera.  Neither  in  Argentina  nor  in  Uruguay  were 
these  divisions  parties  in  any  proper  sense  of  that 
term.  They  were  military  factions,  whose  ambi- 
tious leaders  seem  to  have  been  always  willing  to 
sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  country  at  large  to  se- 
cure a  partisan  advantage.  The  Argentine  troops 
who  returned  home  from  the  war  against  Brazil 
promptly  plunged  their  country  into  the  bloodiest 
civil  war  known  in  her  history,  and  Uruguay  did 
not  delay  in  following  the  example. 

The  first  chief  magistrate  of  independent  Uruguay 
was  Jose  Rondeau,  an  Uruguayan  who  had  become 
one  of  the  greatest  Argentine  generals.  However, 
Lavalleja  and  Rivera  were  the  real  factors  in  the 
situation,  and  Rondeau's  efforts  to  conciliate  both 
at  the  same  time  failed.  The  Constituent  Assembly, 
which  soon  met  and  framed  a  paper  constitution, 
was  controlled  by  Lavalleja's  partisans.  Rondeau 
was  deposed  and  Lavalleja  assumed  the  reins  of 
power.      Rivera  prepared  to  march  on  Montevideo 


264 


URUGUAY 


and  dispute  the  matter  by  arms,  but  the  represent- 
atives of  Argentina  and  Brazil  intervened  and  a 
compromise  was  effected.  Rivera  got  the  best  of 
the  bargain,  being  given  command  of  the  army,  and 
after  the  constitution  had  been  declared  (July  18, 
1830),  he  became,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  first 
president  of  Uruguay. 


CHAPTER  V 


CIVIL  WAR   AND   ARGENTINE    INTERVENTION 


E"^XCEPT  for  an  expedition  against  the  remnants 
>  of  the  once  formidable  Charrua  Indians,  the 
first  two  years  of  independence  passed  in  peace. 
Since  the  expulsion  of  Aitigas,  the  country  had 
prospered  and  its  population  had  risen  nearly  three- 
fold within  twenty-five  years,  in  spite  of  the  bloody 
fighting  which  occurred  from  i8ii  to  iSi/and  from 
1825  to  1828.  The  settlements  had  spread  far  back 
from  the  coast,  and  many  of  the  principal  interior 
towns  date  from  this  period. 

In  1832  the  civil  wars  began  again.  Lavalleja's 
partisans  organised  a  conspiracy,  and  a  certain 
Colonel  Garzon  took  advantage  of  Rivera's  absence 
from  Montevideo  to  raise  a  mutiny  in  the  garrison 
and  to  issue  a  pronunciamento  deposing  the  presi- 
dent. The  latter  soon  recovered  the  city,  and  after 
two  years  of  intermittent  fighting  the  Lavalleja 
party  was  overthrown  for  the  moment  and  Rivera 
finished  his  term  in  peace. 

Manuel  Oribe,  a  chief  of  the  anti-Rivera  faction, 
succeeded  to  the  presidency  by  a  compromise  agree- 

265 


266  URUGUA  Y 

ment,  but  the  breach  between  the  two  factions  had 
really  grown  wider  and  their  mutual  hatred  became 
irrepressibly  bitter,  Oribe  soon  began  to  persecute 
his  opponents.  Meanwhile,  the  five  years  had  ex- 
pired during  which  Uruguayan  independence  had 
been  guaranteed  by  the  treaty  between  Argentina 
and  Brazil.  Argentina  was  free  to  solicit  the  re- 
incorporation of  Uruguay  into  the  Confederation. 
Rosas,  the  head  of  the  federalist  party,  had  made 
himself  master  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  his  authority 
was  recognised  in  most  of  the  Argentine  provinces, 
although  the  unitarians  continued  their  ineffectual 
revolts.  The  new  Uruguayan  president  sympa- 
thised with  the  federalists,  while  his  rival,  Rivera, 
could  count  on  the  unitarians.  The  plan  of  Ro- 
sas was  to  establish  Oribe  firmly  in  Uruguay  and 
through  his  aid  to  incorporate  that  country  with 
Argentina,  while  the  unitarians  were  desperately 
anxious  that  Rivera  should  triumph,  knowing  that 
Montevideo  would  be  a  base  for  the  organisation  of 
their  own  forces  for  invasions  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
central  Argentina. 

Thenceforward  for  many  years  Uruguay's  his- 
tory is  inexplicably  entwined  with  the  story  of  the 
struggle  between  the  two  great  Argentine  factions. 
The  little  country  became  the  storm-centre  of  South 
American  politics  and  the  chief  battlefield  of  the 
contending  forces.  Now  for  the  first  time  we  en- 
counter references  to  "blancos"  and  "colorados," 
which  remain  to  this  day  the  names  of  Uruguayan 
political  parties.  All  the  forces  of  the  community 
lined    up  on  either  side  and  never  have  political 


CIVIL   WAR  ;  ARGENTINE  INTERVENTION       267 

parties  fought  more  determinedly  and  relentlessly. 
The  divisions  between  them  entered  into  all  social 
and  business  relations,  and  even  friendly  intercourse 
between  the  members  of  the  two  factions  was  almost 
impossible.  Men  have  often  been  more  bianco  or 
Colorado  than  Uruguayan.  The  old  conservative 
resident  Spanish  families  were  the  basis  of  the  bianco, 
or  Oribe  party,  while  the  colorados,  or  partisans  of 
Rivera,  were  the  progressive  faction.  The  latter 
attracted  the  Argentine  refugees  fleeing  from  the 
tyranny  of  Rosas,  and  could  count  upon  the 
support  of  resident  Europeans  and  upon  the  sym- 
pathy of  foreign  governments.  Rosas  in  Argen- 
tina and  the  blancos  in  Uruguay  represented  the 
spirit  of  exclusivism  and  opposition  to  foreign 
influences. 

After  Oribe's  accession  to  po\yer  Rivera  hastened 
to  raise  a  revolt  in  the  western  districts.  He  ob- 
tained help  from  the  unitarians,  and  his  invasion  was 
accompanied  by  many  Argentine  generals  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  in  the  wars  against  Rosas. 
The  Argentine  dictator  sent  help  to  Oribe,  but  for 
two  years  the  tide  of  battle  set  in  favour  of  the 
colorados  and  unitarians.  Rivera  had  obtained  so 
decided  an  advantage  by  1838  that  Oribe  abandoned 
Montevideo  and  embarked  for  Buenos  Aires,  fol- 
lowed by  the  chiefs  of  his  party.  The  Colorado 
chief,  now  in  control  of  all  Uruguay,  celebrated  a 
formal  alliance  with  the  province  of  Corrientes, 
then  in  revolt  against  Rosas,  and  war  was  declared 
against  the  latter.  A  large  Argentine  army,  accom- 
panied by  many  blancos,  invaded  Uruguay,  but  was 


268  URUGUAY 

decisively  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Cagancha,  De- 
cember lo,  1839. 

The  interval  of  unquestioned  Colorado  supremacy 
which  followed  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing  pe- 
riods in  the  history  of  Uruguay.  Large  numbers 
of  the  intellectual  elite  of  Buenos  Aires  swarmed 
across  the  river;  Montevideo  became  the  centre  of 
arts  and  letters  of  Spanish  America;  the  civil  wars 
of  the  last  few  years  had  not  been  severe,  and  even 
during  their  continuance  property  had  suffered  little. 
Immigration  from  England,  France,  and  Italy  began 
on  a  large  scale,  and  the  population  increased  at  the 
rate  of  four  per  cent,  per  annum.  In  the  year  1840 
nine  hundred  ocean-going  ships  entered  the  port  of 
Montevideo,  more  than  three  thousand  houses  were 
erected,  and  twenty-seven  great  meat-curing  estab- 
lishments were  in  active  operation.  However,  Rosas 
and  the  blancos  were  only  awaiting  a  good  opportun- 
ity to  attack. 

In  1 841  Oribe,  in  command  of  one  of  Rosas's 
armies,  defeated  the  Argentine  unitarians  under 
General  Lavalle,  and  marched  into  Entre  Rios  to 
suppress  the  insurrection  in  that  province.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1842,  Rivera  took  an  army  of  three  thousand 
men  to  the  rescue  of  his  unitarian  allies.  He  crossed 
the  river  Uruguay  and  united  his  forces  to  those  of 
General  Paz,  but  after  a  year's  desperate  fighting  on 
Argentine  soil  he  and  the  unitarian  general  were 
overthrown  and  their  armies  completely  destroyed 
in  the  battle  of  Arroya  Grande.  The  way  was 
open  to  Montevideo ;  the  colorados  and  Argentine 
exiles   shut   themselves  up    in    that    city,   and    the 


CIVIL   WAR  ;  ARGENTINE  INTERVENTION       269 

so-called  nine-years'  siege  began.  Rosas's  power 
seemed  overwhelming,  and  although  Rivera  and 
other  Colorado  chiefs  at  the  head  of  scattered  bands 
managed  to  make  some  headway  in  the  outlying 
departments,  they  were  finally  driven  into  Brazil, 
while  the  unhappy  country  was  given  up  to  pillage 
and  slaufjhter.  This  ([iicrra  o-randc  was  the  bloodiest, 
longest,  and  most  stubborn  war  ever  fought  on 
Uruguayan  soil. 

Montevideo  seemed  doomed  to  an  early  surrender 
when  an  opportune  intervention  by  France  and 
England  upset  the  plans  of  Rosas.  He  had  em- 
broiled himself  with  the  ministers  of  those  powers 
by  refusing  to  give  satisfaction  for  certain  alleged 
injuries  to  foreign  merchants  and  naval  officers,  and 
the  dispute  became  so  acrimonious  that  the  Euro- 
pean powers  finally  resorted  to  the  most  drastic 
coercive  measures.  A  French,  and  later  a  British, 
fleet  blockaded  Buenos  Aires  and  drove  Rosas's 
vessels  from  the  Plate.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  was  impossible  for  him  to  land  re-enforcements  on 
the  Uruguayan  shore.  In  1845  the  European  navies 
forced  a  passage  at  the  head  of  the  estuary  into  the 
Parana  and  Uruguay,  destroying  the  batteries  which 
Rosas  had  erected  there  and  opening  up  those  rivers 
to  foreign  navigation.  Thereafter,  troops  could  be 
sent  from  Argentina  into  Uruguay  only  by  a  long 
detour  to  the  north. 

In  spite  of  this  hampering  of  his  military  opera- 
tions, and  the  injury  which  the  blockade  caused  to 
the  commerce  of  Buenos  Aires;  the  Argentine  dic- 
tator stubbornly  refused  to  yield  an  inch  to  foreign 


IJO  URUGUAY 

pressure.  France  and  England  were  finally  tired 
out ;  they  raised  the  blockade ;  Rosas  regained  his 
control  of  the  Plate  and  the  early  capture  of  Monte- 
video seemed  certain.  Just  at  this  time,  however, 
General  Urquiza,  governor  of  Entre  Rios,  and 
Rosas's  best  lieutenant  and  most  successful  general, 
broke  with  his  chief.  Entre  Rios  became  a  virtually 
independent  state,  and  Rosas's  efforts  to  reduce 
it  were  unavailing.  Urquiza's  defection  again 
rendered  it  impossible  properly  to  reinforce  Oribe's 
army.  The  colorados  of  the  interior  plucked  up 
courage  and  during  four  years  no  material  progress 
was  made  on  either  side.  A  tedious  and  exhausting 
partisan  warfare  went  on  in  the  interior;  guerrilla 
bands  scoured  the  country  in  every  direction;  in- 
habitants of  the  same  town  were  arrayed  against 
each  other,  and  surprises,  treasons,  and  massacres 
were  almost  daily  occurrences.  One  of  the  most 
successful  leaders  on  the  Colorado  side  was  the 
famous  Giuseppe  Garibaldi.  The  future  liberator 
of  Italy  had  made  his  debut  as  a  revolutionist  in  the 
insurrection  which  broke  out  in  ICS35  in  the  Brazil- 
ian province  of  Rio  Grande.  Later  he  crossed  the 
Uruguayan  border  and  fought  against  Rosas  for 
several  years. 

Early  in  1 85 1  a  grand  combination  to  overthrow 
Rosas  was  made  between  Entre  Rios,  Corrientes, 
the  unitarians,  the  colorados,  and  Brazil.  The  con- 
stant policy  of  the  latter  power  had  been  to  secure 
and  maintain  the  independence  of  Uruguay,  and  she 
welcomed  the  opportunity  to  open  up  the  Parana 
and  Uruguay,  on  whose  headwaters  she  had  great 


CIVIL   WAR  J  ARGENTINE  INTERVENTION      2/1 

territories,  inaccessible  except  along  those  rivers. 
Urquiza  naturally  became  the  general-in-chief  of  the 
alliance.  On  the  i8th  of  July  he  crossed  the  Uru- 
guay, followed  by  a  large  army  from  his  own  pro- 
vinces. A  Brazilian  army  soon  joined  him  and  the 
colorados  flocked  to  his  standard.  The  Brazilian 
fleet  came  down  the  coast  and  controlled  the  estu- 
ary. An  overwhelming  force  advanced  on  Monte- 
video and  the  bianco  army  found  itself  with  a  hostile 
city  and  fleet  in  front,  a  superior  army  behind,  and 
deprived  of  the  hope  of  receiving  help  from  Buenos 
Aires  The  officers  hastened  to  make  terms  with 
Urquiza.  Whole  divisions  deserted,  and  Oribe  him- 
self was  obliged  to  surrender.  Many  of  the  soldiers 
who  had  been  fighting  in  the  bianco  ranks  joined 
Urquiza,  and  the  latter,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  re- 
concile the  Uruguayan  factions  among  themselv^es, 
marched  his  army  back  through  Uruguay  and  Entre 
Rios,  crossed  the  Parana,  and,  descending  to  Buenos 
Aires,  defeated  Rosas  in  the  great  battle  of  Monte 
Caseros. 


CHAPTER  VI 


COLORADOS   AND    BLANCOS 


THE  overthrow  of  Rosas  and  Oribe  marked  the 
end  of  the  effort  to  re-incorporate  Uruguay 
with  the  Argentine  Confederation.  Uruguay  was 
no  longer  in  peril  from  foreign  aggression,  but  she 
was  far  from  being  united.  The  blancos  had  ap- 
parently been  completely  crushed,  but  their  wealth, 
prestige,  and  numbers  still  made  them  formidable. 
The  seeds  of  division  lay  thickly  in  the  soil  of  the 
national  society  and  character,  sure  to  spring  up  and 
bear  many  crops  of  wars  and  pronunciamentos. 

For  the  moment,  however,  the  fierce  Uruguayan 
partisans  had  had  enough  of  fighting.  The  colorados 
were  dominant  and  the  blancos  disorganised  and 
discouraged.  It  seemed  likely  that  Uruguay  would 
enjoy  a  prolonged  peace.  The  wars  which  lasted 
almost  continuously  from  1843  to  1851  had  inter- 
rupted immigration  from  Europe;  unitarians  had, 
however,  crossed  in  multitudes  from  Buenos  Aires 
and  many  of  their  families  remained  after  the  pro- 
clamation of  peace.  To  this  day  Montevideo  is  full 
of  families  descended  from  Buenos  Aires  refugees; 

272 


COLORADOS  AND  BLANCOS  273 

the  same  names  constantly  recur  on  both  banks  of 
the  Plate,  and  the  social  ties  uniting  the  two  cities 
are  intimate.  Uruguay's  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep 
had  suffered  from  the  depredations  of  the  armed 
marauding  bands  which  had  scoured  the  country 
districts  for  nine  years,  but  man's  cruel  destructive- 
ness  could  not  injure  the  magnificent  pasturage  with 
which  nature  had  endowed  the  nation,  and  animals 
quickly  multiplied  again  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 
In  i860  the  cattle  in  Uruguay  numbered  more  than 
five  millions,  the  sheep  two  millions,  and  the  horses 
nearly  one  million.  The  population  increased  at  the 
almost  incredible  ratio  of  nine  per  cent,  per  annum 
after  the  overthrow  of  Oribe  in  185 1  until  civil  war 
again  broke  out  in  1863. 

During  these  years  Colorado  chiefs  occupied  the 
presidency,  sometimes  succeeding  one  another, 
sometimes  by  pronunciamento,  and  sometimes  by  a 
form  of  election.  General  Venancio  Flores,  an  able 
and  ruthless  ofificer,  became  the  principal  figure 
among  the  colorados.  In  1853  he  was  a  member  of 
a  triumvirate  which  forced  the  legal  president  to 
withdraw,  and  in  1854  he  was  himself  raised  to  the 
presidency,  only  to  be  obliged  to  resign  the  follow- 
ing year.  As  is  usual  in  South  America,  the  domin- 
ant party  split  into  factions,  led  by  ambitious  chiefs, 
and  lost  popularity.  The  blancos,  as  soon  as  they  got 
into  power,  obtained  control  of  the  senate,  and  their 
prestige  and  wealth  soon  balanced  the  military  force 
of  their  opponents.  In  i860  they  finally  prevailed, 
and  their  leader,  Berro,  became  constitutional  presi- 
dent of  the  republic. 

VOL.  I.— 18. 


274  URUGUA  V 

The  colorados,  however,  did  not  propose  to  sub- 
mit. Massed  upon  the  Argentine  frontier,  they 
held  themselves  ready  to  fall  upon  their  successful 
opponents  at  the  first  opportunity.  Flores  had 
been  exiled  and  joined  the  Argentine  army,  but  in 
1863  he  obtained  aid  in  Buenos  Aires  and  disem- 
barked upon  the  Uruguayan  coast  with  a  consider- 
able force.  His  partisans  rose  and  he  obtained 
possession  of  a  large  portion  of  the  country  and  set 
up  a  government  of  his  own.  For  a  year  the  con- 
test went  on  with  varying  fortunes,  and  then  this 
fight  between  blancos  and  colorados  involved  all  the 
neighbouring  nations  and  brought  on  the  greatest 
war  which  has  ever  devastated  South  America  and 
which  resulted  in  the  nearly  complete  destruction 
of  the  Paraguayan  people. 

The  unitarians,  then  in  power  at  Buenos  Aires, 
naturally  sympathised  with  the  leader  of  their  old 
Colorado  allies,  and  were  inclined  to  aid  Flores's 
attempt  to  regain  control  of  Montevideo.  Brazil 
favoured  his  pretensions  even  more  actively.  The 
Brazilians  of  Rio  Grande  owned  most  of  the  land 
and  cattle  just  over  the  Uruguayan  border,  a  third 
of  all  the  rural  properties  in  the  republic  being  taxed 
to  them,  and  complaints  of  extortion  often  came  to 
the  Rio  government.  The  bianco  president  refused 
the  satisfaction  demanded,  and  Brazil  determined  to 
enforce  the  claims  of  her  citizens.  Flores  was  form- 
ally recognised  as  the  legitimate  ruler  of  the  country, 
and  a  fleet  and  army  were  sent  to  his  assistance. 
Lopez,  dictator  of  Paraguay,  thought  Brazil's  inter- 
vention in  Uruguay  dangerous  to  the  international 


276  URUGUA  V 

equilibrium  of  South  America.  He  protested,  and 
when  the  Brazilian  government  persisted  and  sent 
its  army  over  the  border  he  began  war.  The 
Brazilians  advanced  to  Montevideo  and  their  fleet 
came  down  the  coast.  The  city  was  blockaded  by 
sea  and  besieged  by  land,  while  the  main  body  of 
the  allies  advanced  against  the  town  of  Paysandu  on 
the  Uruguay  River,  where  the  blancos  had  assembled 
in  force.  The  place  was  taken  by  assault  and  given 
up  to  a  horrible  pillage,  the  recollection  of  which  is 
still  graven  in  the  memory  of  Uruguayans.  The 
bianco  party  never  recovered  from  the  slaughter. 
Those  in  Montevideo  saved  themselves  by  sur- 
rendering the  town  without  resistance.  Flores 
entered  in  triumph  and  the  bianco  leaders  fled  into 
exile. 

Flores  was  under  obligations  to  lead  a  division  in 
the  war  against  Paraguay,  and  he  absented  himself 
for  that  purpose  for  nearly  two  years,  during  which 
the  country  districts  were  somewhat  disturbed.  In 
1867  he  returned  and  restored  order  with  a  strong 
hand.  This  short  lease  of  undisturbed  power  was 
employed  in  making  many  important  improvements. 
Great  public  edifices  were  completed,  the  telegraph 
cable  was  laid  to  Buenos  Aires,  the  building  of  rail- 
roads was  begun,  and  a  new  civil  code  adopted. 
Immigration  was  resumed  on  a  large  scale  and  the 
country  felt  the  economic  impulse  that  was  already 
transforming  the  whole  Plate  valley.  Although  the 
country  rapidly  prospered  under  the  military  admin- 
istration of  Flores,  the  feeling  of  the  blancos  re- 
mained intensely  bitter,  and  on  the  15th  of  February, 


CO  LOR  A  DOS  AND   BLANCOS  2'J'J 

1868,  the  Colorado  president  was  assassinated  in  the 
streets  of  Montevideo. 

Flores's  death  was  the  signal  for  wholesale  execu- 
tions and  for  the  outbreak  of  another  long  bianco 
insurrection.  Although  the  growth  of  wealth  and 
population  had  never  been  more  rapid  than  at  this 
very  time,  the  country  was  not  free  from  civil  dis- 
turbance until  1872,  when  an  armistice  was  signed. 
A  year  later  troubles  broke  out  again  and  the  troops 
refused  to  march  against  the  insurgents.  To  the 
bitterness  of  party  feeling  and  the  official  corruption 
which  diminished  the  revenue  and  hampered  com- 
merce was  added  the  embarrassment  of  the  financial 
difficulties  which  followed  the  great  panic  of  1873. 
The  public  debt  had  doubled  in  the  ten  years  be- 
tween i860  and  1870  and  now  reached  the  enormous 
figure  of  over  forty  million  dollars,  nearly  $150  for 
each  inhabitant  in  the  country.  One  president  after 
another  was  unable  to  maintain  himself  in  the  face 
of  the  financial  and  political  difficulties  of  the  situa- 
tion, but  in  1876  General  Lorenzo  Latorre,  an  in- 
telligent and  determined  Colorado  chief,  became 
dictator.  For  economy's  sake,  he  reduced  the 
number  of  army  officers,  of  whom  there  were  over 
twelve  hundred  for  two  thousand  privates.  He 
rooted  out  the  worst  frauds  in  the  customs  service, 
and  refunded  the  public  debt,  compelling  the  foreign 
creditors  to  accept  six  instead  of  twelve  per  cent, 
interest.  At  the  same  time  he  rigidly  suppressed 
the  disorders  which  had  harassed  the  country  since 
the  murder  of  Flores.  The  bands  of  marauders, 
assassins,  and    bandits,  who    had    exercised    their 


278  URUGUA  Y 

nefarious  occupations  under  cover  of  belonging  to 
the  insurrectionists,  were  relentlessly  pursued  and 
brought  to  justice.  For  the  first  time  in  years  a 
traveller  could  traverse  the  country  from  end  to  end 
without  arms.  Like  Flores,  Latorre  often  used 
brute  force  to  secure  peace  and  order,  and  the 
Uruguayans  were  too  turbulent  to  submit  long  to 
such  dictation.  Countless  conspiracies  were  formed 
which  were  bloodily  suppressed,  but  public  fear  and 
dislike  of  Latorre  grew  continually  more  menacing. 
In  1880,  tired  out  with  constant  anxieties  and 
grieved  over  what  he  considered  the  ingratitude  of 
his  countrymen,  Latorre  resigned  his  office  and  went 
into  exile. 

His  successor,  Dr.  Vidal,  held  the  presidency  for 
only  two  years,  when  he,  too,  was  forced  to  resign. 
The  next  president,  Maximo  Santos,  served  his 
complete  term  of  four  full  years,  ending  in  1886. 
Then  Vidal  managed  to  get  back  into  power  for  a 
few  months  and  was  again  replaced  by  Santos,  who, 
in  turn,  was  succeeded  by  Tajes,  who  governed  the 
country  until  1890.  The  ten  years  succeeding  the 
resignation  of  Latorre  were  materially  very  prosper- 
ous. The  sheep  industry  developed  tremendously; 
the  production  of  wheat  was  more  than  doubled  ; 
immigration  ran  up  to  nearly  20,000  a  year;  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  country  reached  700,000,  having  in- 
creased from  400,000  in  twelve  years.  Immigration 
had  been  so  great  that  the  number  of  the  foreign- 
born  almost  equalled  the  natives,  even  when  includ- 
ing in  the  latter  those  of  foreign  parentage.  In  the 
mixture  of  nationalities  the  foundations  have  been 


COLORADOS  AND   B LA  NCOS  279 

laid  for  a  race  of  unusual  vigour  and  of  pure  Cauca- 
sian descent. 

The  bitterness  of  the  old  factional  feeling  largely 
died  out  during  the  disturbances  which  succeeded 
the  murder  of  Flores.  The  blancos  had  suffered 
terrible  losses  in  1864,  and  the  colorados  had  be- 
come far  the  more  numerous  party.  During  La- 
torre's  dictatorship  the  distinctions  between  the 
two  were  almost  lost,  and  the  bianco  party,  by  that 
name  at  least,  ceased  to  be  an  active  factor  in  poli- 
tics. New  factions,  however,  took  their  place,  but 
the  struggles  for  place  and  power  lacked  the  convic- 
tion and  ferocity  of  the  old  civil  wars.  The  gaucho 
and  Creole  element,  although  still  politically  domiu- 
ant,  was  diluted  by  the  infiltration  of  a  more  indus- 
trially minded  population.  The  people  were  not  so 
exclusively  pastoral  and  had  ceased  to  be  so  military 
in  their  tastes.  The  foreign  immigrants  wanted 
peace, — a  chance  to  sow  their  wheat  and  tend  their 
sheep  undisturbed, — and  the  gaucho,  living  on  his 
horse,  feeding  on  beef  alone,  and  always  ready  to 
ride  off  to  fight  by  the  .'^ide  of  his  favourite  chief, 
ceased  in  many  of  the  departments  to  be  the  domin- 
ant factor.  Politics  became  largely  a  game  played 
by  the  ruling  Spanish-American  caste  and  did  not 
directly  interfere  with  the  material  interests  of  the 
country,  and  rarely  affected  the  maintenance  of  law 
and  order. 

The  prosperity  of  the  eighties  had  been  accom- 
panied by  an  enormous  increase  in  governmental 
expenditures  and  debt.  The  economies  so  pain- 
fully   enforced     in     Latorre's    administration    were 


28o  URUGUAY 

abandoned.  Nearly  as  much  money  was  spent  in  ten 
years  as  had  been  in  the  previous  fifty  years  of  the 
republic's  existence.  The  debt  more  than  doubled, 
and  the  deficit  each  year  equalled  fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  receipts.  The  Buenos  Aires  panic  of  1890 
brought  on  grave  commercial  difficulties;  real  estate 
dropped  one-half;  prices  fell,  and,  as  usual,  the 
people  blamed  the  government.  Political  disturb- 
ances began  with  an  attempt  at  a  bianco  uprising  in 
Montevideo  in  1891.  The  clergy  were  active  in 
fomenting  dissatisfaction,  but  the  trouble  was  sup- 
pressed for  the  time,  Herrera  y  Obes,  elected  in 
1890,  served  his  term  out,  but  the  government  was 
getting  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  financial  mire, 
in  spite  of  having  cut  down  the  rate  of  interest  on 
the  public  debt  fifty  per  cent.  The  murmurs  of  the 
public  grew  constantly  more  menacing  against  a 
taxation  which  had  become  so  excessive  that  it 
almost  threatened  the  destruction  of  industries. 

When  the  election  came  on  in  1894  the  outgoing 
president  found  that  he  had  not  control  of  Congress, 
the  body  which  elects  the  president.  A  deadlock 
ensued  and  the  ballots  were  taken  amid  confusion 
and  fears  of  intimidation.  Ellaure,  the  president's 
candidate,  dared  not  accept  because  of  the  threaten- 
ing attitude  of  the  opposition.  Finally,  J  uan  Idiarte 
Borda  was  declared  elected,  amid  outcries  and  pro- 
tests against  dictation  and  terrorism.  The  new 
president  pledged  himself  to  reform  the  finances  and 
pursue  a  conciliatory  policy  toward  the  different 
factions,  but  he  was  soon  accused  of  extravagance 
and  favouritism.     The  blancos  had  again  become  a 


COLORADOS  AND  BLANCOS  2Sf 

formidable  party  after  twenty  years  of  eclipse,  »nd 
they  believed  that  they  were  being  deprived  of  their 
political  rights  by  the  Colorado  president.  In  1896 
he  procured  the  election  of  a  Congress  completely 
under  his  control,  and  early  in  1897,  seeing  no  hope 
of  a  constitutional  change,  a  bianco  colonel  named 
Lamas  raised  the  standard  of  revolt,  assembled  a 
force  in  the  western  provinces,  and  gained  a  victory 
over  the  president's  soldiers.  He  marched  east 
and  joined  Aparicio  Saraiva,  a  chief  belonging  to  a 
family  celebrated  in  the  military  annals  of  Brazil, 
who  had  brought  a  considerable  force  over  the  bor- 
der. The  rebels  soon  had  possession  of  the  east- 
ern departments  and  menaced  Montevideo,  while 
Borda  borrowed  money  right  and  left  and  armed  and 
drilled  regiment  after  regiment  to  prosecute  the  war 
against  them.  Nevertheless,  the  rebels  maintained 
themselves  and  roamed  the  country  at  will.  They 
would  listen  to  no  terms  that  did  not  include  Borda's 
resignation,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  country  was 
doomed  to  pass  through  another  long  and  bloody 
civil  war. 

On  August  25,  1897,  President  Borda  was  assas- 
sinated in  the  streets  of  Montevideo  by  a  respectable 
grocer's  clerk.  The  vice-president,  Juan  L.  Cuestas, 
succeeded  peacefully  to  the  control  of  the  govern- 
ment in  Montevideo,  and  at  once  entered  into  nego- 
tiations with  the  leaders  of  the  insurrectionists  in 
the  departments.  Terms  were  quickly  agreed  upon. 
Cuestas  conceded  minority  representation  and  elect- 
oral reform,  and  in  a  very  short  time  the  rebels 
had  laid  down  their  arms.     The  few  months  of  war 


282  URUGUA  V 

had  cost  Uruguay  dear.  Thirteen  million  dollars  had 
been  spent  by  the  government,  the  collection  of  the 
revenue  had  been  interrupted,  and  internal  trans- 
portation had  been  demoralised.  Now,  however, 
industry  and  commerce  resumed  their  usual  course, 
and,  since  President  Cuestas's  accession  to  power, 
the  peace  of  the  country  has  been  undisturbed. 
Political  manifestations  have  been  confined  to  dis- 
putes in  Congress  and  the  press.  They  became  so 
violent  that  in  1898  the  president  dissolved  the 
chambers  and  declared  himself  dictator.  He  re- 
organised the  army  on  a  basis  which  insured  that 
there  would  be  no  mutinies,  and  at  the  same  time 
pursued  a  policy  of  administrative  reform  which 
has  done  much  to  bring  order  out  of  the  financial 
confusion.  The  obligations  of  the  government  have 
been  religiously  performed,  and  Uruguay's  currency 
is  on  a  gold  basis.  In  1899  Cuestas  was  elected 
president  according  to  the  forms  of  the  Constitution. 
He  carried  out  the  pledge  he  had  given  the  blancos 
not  to  interfere  with  the  elections,  and  in  1900 
they  made  great  gains  and  elected  enough  members 
to  control  the  Senate.  The  political  situation  has, 
therefore,  been  somewhat  strained,  but  there  seems 
to  be  no  danger  that  the  congressional  opposition 
will  try  to  interfere  with  the  executive  functions  of 
the  president. 

This  gallant  and  pugnacious  little  people  will  con- 
tinue to  play  a  role  in  South  American  affairs  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  size  of  their  country.  Uru- 
guay seems  certain  to  continue  to  be  the  political 
Storm-centre  of  the  Atlantic  coast.    Climate,  soil,  and 


284  URUGUA  V 

geographical  position  insure  a  rapid  increase  in  popu. 
lation  and  wealth,  while  its  political  independence 
must  continue  to  be  an  object  of  constant  solicitude 
on  the  part  of  its  gigantic  neighbours,  Argentina  and 
Brazil.  Montevideo  is  a  formidable  trade  rival  to 
Buenos  Aires,  and  must  alweiys  be,  as  it  has  so  often 
been  in  the  past,  the  base  for  any  attack  at  the  heart 
of  the  Argentine  Republic.  To  the  north  nothing 
but  an  artificial  boundary  separates  Uruguay  from 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  the  two  regions  are  alike  in 
everything  except  language.  Should  the  Portu- 
guese-Americans again  evince  those  tendencies  to- 
ward expansion  which  distinguished  them  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  Uruguay 
would  be  the  natural  point  of  attack,  and  if  Brazil 
should  ever  divide  into  its  component  parts,  as  it 
came  so  near  doing  in  1822  and  again  in  1837,  Rio 
Grande  and  Uruguay  might  find  it  necessary  to 
coalesce,  or  possibly  wars  might  ensue  between 
them  which  would  change  the  face  of  South  Amer- 
ica. A  not  improbable  alternative  would  be  the 
establishment  of  a  power  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  Plate  strong  enough  to  hold  its  own,  and  which 
might  play  the  same  role  in  the  interaction  of  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  Americans  as  did  Flanders  between 
the  Teutons  and  Latins  in  Europe. 


BRAZIL 


ass 


CHAPTER  I 


PORTUGAL 


THE  motherland  of  Brazil  is  Portugal.  Profound 
as  were  the  changes  incident  to  transplant- 
ing a  people  to  a  virgin  continent;  notwithstanding 
Spanish  dominion  and  Dutch  conquests;  large  as 
were  the  admixtures  of  negro,  Indian,  and  alien 
blood  ;  in  spite  of  independence  and  Republicanism; 
the  language,  customs,  religion,  and  laws  of  Brazil 
ate  to-day  substantially  like  those  of  Portugal. 

The  parallel  between  the  United  States  and  Britain 
is  not  closer.  Brazil  has  diverged  even  less  than  her 
model.  Her  population  may  have  a  larger  admixt- 
ure of  nonT'ortuguese  blood  than  the  North  Amer- 
icans have  of  non-British,  but  politically  there  was 
less  opportunity  for  divergence,  for  Brazil  was  kept 
under  much  closer  subordination.  The  discovery  of 
Brazil  coincided  with  the  destruction  of  popular 
liberties  in  the  mother-country.  Thereafter,  the 
Portuguese  government  was  a  centralised  despotism, 
and  its  hand  lay  heavy  on  the  Brazilian  provinces. 
They  were  forbidden  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the 
/vorld;  functionaries  of  every  kind  were  continually 

287 


288  BRAZIL 

imported;  the  provinces  never  dreamed  of  asserting 
any  right  to  self-government;  from  the  beginning 
the  system  was  centraHsing  and  stifling.  The  North 
American  colonies  of  England  were  left  to  grow  up 
by  themselves;  they  were  never  under  a  colonial 
government  properly  so  called ;  a  revolt  followed 
the  first  serious  attempt  to  subject  them  to  a  real 
colonial  regime.  But  the  independence  of  Brazil 
came  because  liberties  were  finally  granted,  not  be- 
cause they  were  threatened  to  be  taken  away.  The 
country  remained  under  a  tutelage,  growing  con- 
tinually more  rigorous,  and  which  ceased  only  after 
the  Portuguese  monarch  had  fled  from  Lisbon  and 
the  colony  had  become  greater  than  the  mother- 
country. 

It  is,  therefore,  in  the  little  peninsular  kingdom, 
during  the  centuries  before  Cabral  caught  sight  of 
the  South  American  coast,  that  we  must  look  for 
the  beginnings  of  Brazil.  Rome  gave  to  Portugal 
laws,  language,  religion,  and  architecture;  the  forests 
of  Germany  modified  her  political  institutions;  the 
Saracens  gave  her  the  arts,  navigation,  and  material 
civilisation.  Her  happy  geographical  position  near 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  made  her  the  meeting-place 
for  the  Mohammedan  and  Christian  religions — of 
Levantine  civilisation  with  Teutonic  barbarism  and 
liberty.  That  position  also  enabled  the  qualities  of 
daring  and  enterprise  and  the  scientific  knowledge 
acquired  in  centuries  of  long  conflicts  and  inter- 
course with  the  Moors  to  be  turned  to  immediate 
advantage  when  the  Renaissance  came.  Portugal 
was  the  pioneer  of  Europe  in  discovery  and  colonisa- 


PORTUGAL  289 

tion,  though  Spain  followed  close  after.  Together 
they  led  in  making  Western  EurojDean  civilisation 
dominant  beyond  seas.  The  nations  who  followed 
in  their  track  have  long  since  passed  them,  but 
Portugal  had  once  the  opportunity  of  spreading  her 
influence  and  institutions  over  half  the  planet.  In 
Brazil  she  mixed  success  with  the  failure  that  was 
her  fate  elsewhere.  Brazil  is  to-day  the  nation 
which  has  inherited  Roman  civilisation  in  the  least 
modified  form,  and  is  the  country  where  the  genuine 
Latin  spirit  has  the  best  opportunity  for  growth  and 
survival. 

The  study  of  Portugal  takes  on  a  new  dignity  and 
importance  when  we  reflect  that  she  has  given  lan- 
guage, institutions,  and  laws  to  half  of  South  Amer- 
ica and  to  a  population  that  already  outnumbers  her 
own  four  to  one.  She  is  entitled  to  the  interest  of 
the  world  if  only  because  she  has  placed  her  indel- 
ible imprint  on  a  region  which  is  as  large  as  Europe 
and  as  fertile  as  Java,  anci  which  is  destined  within 
the  next  two  centuries  to  support  the  largest  popula- 
tion of  any  of  the  great  political  divisions  of  the 
globe. 

In  the  twelfth  century,  the  coalescence  of  a  frag- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  Leon  with  the  Moorish 
territory  near  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus  originated 
Portugal  as  a  separate  country.  The  race  was  very 
mixed.  Its  principal  elements  were  the  Leonese 
and  the  Mosarabes — the  latter  being  the  Christians 
of  Moorish  Portugal  left  undisturbed  from  Visigothic 
times  by  their  tolerant  Mohammedan  conquerors. 
Each  of  these  elements  was,  in  its  turn,  of  mixed 


290  BRAZIL 

origin.  To  the  original  Iberian  population,  which 
had  occupied  the  Peninsula  two  thousand  years  be- 
fore the  Christian  era,  had  been  successively  added 
Phenicians,  Greeks,  Celts,  Ligurians,  Carthaginians, 
Latins, — and  in  Roman  times, — officials,  soldiers, 
and  slaves  from  all  over  the  empire,  including  many 
Jews.  The  long  Roman  dominion  welded  all  these 
together  into  a  homogeneous  mass.  Later,  the  Visi- 
gothic  conquest  added  a  large  Teutonic  contingent, 
which  is  especially  evident  in  northern  and  Leonese 
Portugal.  Still  later,  the  Saracens  intermarried  in 
considerable  numbers  w'ith  the  Mosarabes  of  south- 
ern Portugal.  After  the  formation  of  the  modern 
kingdom,  another  element  was  added  in  the  French, 
Provencals,  Flemings,  and  English  who  came  in 
large  numbers  to  aid  in  the  final  expulsion  of  the 
Moors.  By  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
Portuguese  had  become  a  distinct  nation.  Racial 
and  religious  tolerance  were  more  advanced  than 
in  the  rest  of  Europe;  self-governing  municipalities 
covered  the  greatest  part  of  the  country,  each  privi- 
leged within  a  definite  territory.  The  nobles,  pre- 
lates, and  monastic  and  military  orders  were  still 
privileged,  and  their  property  was  not  subject  to 
tribute,  but  their  power  was  not  predominant.  The 
king  was  chief  of  the  army  and  the  proprietor  of  a 
very  considerable  proportion  of  the  land,  but  he  was 
under  constant  pressure  to  grant  it  to  the  religious 
orders  and  to  the  nobles.  The  people  were  every- 
where heavily  taxed  —  in  the  municipalities  and 
Crown  lands  by  the  king,  and  on  the  estates  of  the 
privileged  orders  for  the  benefit  of  their  great  pro- 


PORTUGAL  291 

prietors.  The  nobles  were  under  no  enforceable 
obligation  to  perform  military  service.  A  great  gen- 
eral deliberative  and  representative  assembly — the 
Cortes — had  come  into  being  when  the  monarchy 
was  founded.  It  included  representatives  of  the 
municipalities  as  well  as  nobles  and  clergy,  and  its 
importance  and  vitality  are  shown  by  the  fact  that 
from  1250  to  1376  it  met  twenty-five  times.  By  the 
latter  date,  jurisprudence  had  become  generalised 
and  its  administration  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  Crown.  The  nation  had  developed  out  of  local 
and  class  privilege  a  reasonably  consistent  and  uni- 
form administration.  The  municipalities  were  the 
basis  of  the  governmental  structure,  and  a  rude  but 
effective  local  self-government  existed  through  their 
instrumentality.  The  norm  for  the  centralisation 
and  organisation  had  not  been,  as  in  nearly  all  the 
rest  of  Europe,  the  feudal  system,  but  the  surviving 
fragments  of  the  Roman  structure.  To  the  munici- 
palities was  largely  due  the  astonishing  vigour  shown 
by  the  Portuguese  people  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  The  norm  even  survived  the  de- 
struction of  liberty,  and  its  influence  can  be  seen  in 
every  step  of  the  subsequent  development  of  Portu- 
gal and  also  of  Brazil, 

Portugal's  heroic  era  began  near  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  great  King  John  I., 
founder  of  the  dynasty  of  Aviz,  secured  Portugal  for 
ever  from  absorption  by  Spain  when  he  won  the  bat- 
tle of  Aljubarrota  in  1385.  This  was  the  signal  for 
a  rapid  transformation  of  the  character  and  policies 
of  the  Portuguese  people.     The  thirst  for  war  and 


292  BRAZIL 

adventure  grew.  The  old  Portugal — laborious,  agri- 
cultural, home-loving,  conservative — was  replaced 
by  a  new  Portugal — adventurous,  seafaring,  eager, 
romantic,  longing  for  conquest,  glory,  and  wealth, 
its  eyes  straining  over  the  sea,  the  embodiment  of 
the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  on  its  material  side. 
The  meeting  of  the  Levant  and  the  Baltic,  the  East 
and  the  West,  Mohammedans  and  Christianity,  the 
arts  and  knowledge  of  the  old  races  with  the  energy 
of  the  new,  had  at  last  produced  its  perfect  work. 
In  141 5  an  army  was  sent  into  Africa,  and  Ceuta 
was  conquered;  and  there  began  that  marvellous 
series  of  voyages  which  not  only  ti-ansformed  Portu- 
gal into  an  empire,  but  gave  a  new  world  to  Europe 
and  revolutionised  the  planet.  Modern  scientific 
navigation  began  with  the  sailors  instructed  in  the 
school  which  was  set  up  at  Sagres  by"  Prince  Henry, 
King  John's  son.  Until  then,  European  nautical 
knowledge  had  been  very  meagre.  The  compass 
served  only  to  indicate  direction,  not  distance  or 
position,  and  did  not  suffice  for  the  systematic  navi- 
gation of  the  open  Atlantic.  The  Portuguese  first 
made  that  possible  by  using  astronomical  observa- 
tions and  inventing  the  quadrant  and  the  astrolabe. 
This  knowledge,  once  acquired,  was  promptly  ap- 
plied to  the  work  of  navigation.  Madeira  was  dis- 
covered in  141 8;  the  Canaries  in  1427;  the  Azores 
in  1432.  The  first  and  last  were  colonised  and 
rapidly  became  populous.  To  the  West  the  ex- 
plorers pushed  no  farther  for  the  present,  but  to  the 
south  they  reached  Cape  Blanco  in  1441,  Senegambia 
and  Cape  Verde  in  1445,  and  the  Cape  Verde  Islands 


PORTUGAL  293 

in  1460.  In  1469,  they  turned  into  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea,  and  in  147 1  were  the  first  Europeans  to 
cross  the  Equator,  Their  searcli,  at  first  random, 
now  became  definite.  They  beheved  it  was  only 
necessary  to  keep  on  and  they  would  round  the 
southern  extremity  of  Africa  and  reach  Abyssinia 
and  India  by  sea,  a  hope  which  became  a  certainty 
in  1487,  when  Bartholomew  Diaz  finally  reached  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

Meanwhile,  a  political  revolution  had  been  going 
on.  The  strong  kings  of  the  line  of  Aviz  had  won 
for  the  Crown  a  moral  preponderance  over  the  no- 
bility and  clergy.  The  latter  resisted  the  royal 
encroachments,  but  the  municipalities  joined  the 
monarchs  in  the  struggle  against  them.  The  king 
who  established  centralised  despotism — the  Riche- 
lieu of  Portugal — was  John  II.,  the  third  of  the  Aviz 
dynasty,  and  who  reigned  from  148 1  to  1495.  Under 
his  rule,  the  whole  military  power  was  concentrated 
in  the  Crown ;  the  nobility  became  a  class  living  at 
Court;  the  king  was  the  fountain  of  all  honour  and 
advancement ;  local  ofificers  were  replaced  by  officials 
appointed  by  and  responsible  to  the  central  govern- 
ment ;  piece  by  piece  the  independent  functions  of 
the  municipalities  were  taken  away. 

Concentration  of  power  in  the  hands  of  monarch 
and  bureaucracy  produced  its  inevitable  effect.  A 
short  period  of  marvellous  brilliancy  in  arms,  state- 
craft, literature,  and  the  arts  was  followed  by  sud- 
den decay.  The  self-governing  municipalities  had 
nurtured  a  multitude  of  men  whom  small  power  and 
responsibility  fitted  for  great   things.     The  nation 


294  BRAZIL 

turned  eagerly  to  the  work  of  exploration  and  con- 
quest and  prosecuted  it  efficiently. 

Such  a  people  would  undertake  conquest  for  their 
king,  rather  than  colonisation  on  their  own  account; 
they  would  emigrate  under  military  leadership  and 
forms;  their  colonies  would  tolerate  a  close  control 
by  the  mother  county;  they  would  seek  to  convert 
the  aborigines  and  reduce  them  to  slavery ;  private 
initiative  would  be  stifled  and  overshadowed  by 
that  of  the  government ;  large  proprietorship  would 
be  the  rule;  the  colonies  would  be  burdened  with 
functionaries  sent  in  successive  swarms  from  home; 
taxation  would  be  excessive;  the  best  talent  would 
go  into  the  bureau  and  not  concern  itself  with  in- 
dustrial matters;  invention  and  originality  would  be 
discouraged;  agriculture  would  not  be  diversified, 
nor  manufactures  thrive.  To  this  day  a  few  staple 
crops  predominate  in  Brazil;  small  landownership 
is  the  exception,  and  the  people  show  little  aptitude 
for  change  when  unfavourable  circumstances  make 
their  crops  unprofitable.  Brazilian  Creoles  have 
little  taste  for  manual  pursuits,  and  not  much  more 
for  commerce.  Non-Portuguese  immigration  has 
supplied  most  of  the  labour;  foreigners  have  always 
conducted  most  of  the  trade. 


CHAPTER   n 

DISCOVERY 

ON  the  9th  of  March,  1 500,  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral, 
a  Portuguese  nobleman  of  illustrious  birth, 
but  not  yet  distinguished  by  any  notable  feats  in 
war  or  seamanship,  sailed  from  Lisbon  for  the  East 
Indies.  This  expedition  was  sent  out  to  continue 
the  work  begun  by  Vasco  da  Gama  in  the  first  all- 
sea  voyage  to  India.  It  was  an  advance-guard  for 
the  larger  armament  that  two  years  later  founded 
the  Portuguese  empire  on  the  coasts  of  India. 
Vasco  da  Gama  himself  wrote  Cabral's  sailing  orders. 
The  latter  was  instructed,  after  passing  the  Cape 
Verde  Islands  in  14°  North,  to  sail  directly  south, 
as  long  as  the  wind  was  favourable.  If  forced  to 
change  his  course,  he  was  ordered  to  keep  on  the 
starboard  tack,  even  though  it  led  him  south-west. 
When  he  reached  the  latitude  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope — 34°  South — he  was  to  bear  away  to  the  east. 
These  sailing  instructions  have  been  the  subject 
of  much  discussion.  Many  believe  their  sole  pur- 
pose was  to  enable  Cabral  to  avoid  the  Guinea  calms, 
so  annoying  to  sailing  ships  near  the  African  coast. 

295 


\CJQ 


BRAZIL 


Others  contend  tliat  Da  Gama  had  seen  signs  of  land 
to  the  west  on  his  own  voyage,  and  that  its  discovery- 
was  a  real,  though  secondary,  object  of  the  expedi- 
tion. In  any  event  the  Brazilian  coast  is  too  near 
the   natural   route   around   Africa  to   have   escaped 


OLD    TOWER    AT    LISBON    WHENCE    THE   FLEET    SAILED. 

encounter,   and  would  infallibly  have  shortly  been 
seen  by  some  one  else. 

Forty-two  days  after  leaving  Lisbon,  Cabral's 
fleet  saw  unmistakable  signs  of  land,  being  then  in 
latitude  17  degrees  south  and  longitude  36  degrees 
west.  From  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  just  off  the 
western  point  of  Africa,  he  had  made  2300  miles, 
and  had  come  500  miles  to  the  west.  The  next  day 
a  mountain  was  sighted,  which  he  called  Paschoal, 


DISCO  VER  V  297 

because  it  was  Easter  week.  This  mountain  is  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  state  of  Bahia,  about  four 
hundred  miles  north-east  of  Rio,  and  on  a  coast  that 
to  this  day  is  sparsely  inhabited  and  rarely  visited. 
The  following  day  the  whole  fleet  came  to  an  anchor 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  shore,  and  just  north  of 
the  dangerous  Abrolhos  reefs.  This  was  the  23rd 
of  April,  Old  Style,  which  corresponds  with  the  3rd 
of  May  in  the  Gregorian  calendar.  The  date  is  a 
national  holiday  in  Brazil,  and  the  anniversary  for 
the  annual  convening  of  Congress. 

Because  no  quadrupeds  or  large  rivers  were  seen, 
Cabral  though  he  had  discovered  an  island  and 
named  it  the  "Island  of  the  True  Cross."  The 
name  has  not  survived  except  in  poetry.  He 
stopped  ten  days  on  the  coast,  took  formal  posses- 
sion, and  sent  expeditions  on  shore  which  entered 
into  communication  with  the  Indians,  who  were  seen 
in  considerable  numbers.  It  is  characteristic  that 
the  first  question  asked  of  the  Indians  was  if  they 
knew  what  gold  and  silver  were.  They  were  peace- 
able and  friendly,  and  the  old  chronicle  describes 
them  as  of  a  dark  reddish  complexion  with  good 
features,  and  muscular,  well-shaped  bodies.  They 
wore  no  clothes,  their  lower  lips  and  cheeks  were 
perforated  to  carry  great  ornaments  of  white  bone, 
and  their  hair  was  elaborately  dressed  and  adorned 
with  feathers. 

These  were  fair  specimens  of  the  Tupi-Guaranies, 
the  largest  of  the  four  great  families  into  which  the 
Brazilian  aborigines  have  been  classified.  The  others 
are  the  Caribs,  the  Arawaks,  and  the   Botacudos. 


298  BRAZIL 

There  are  also  traces  of  tribes  who  inhabited  the 
country  remote  centuries  ago.  In  caves  in  Minas 
Geraes  skeletons  have  been  found  remarkably  like 
those  of  the  earliest  Europeans.  The  theory  is  that 
these  Indians  came  from  Europe  by  land  in  that  re- 
mote geological  epoch  when  Scandinavia  was  joined 
to  Greenland.  Later  came  Mongoloids,  probably 
by  way  of  the  Behring  Strait,  who  appear  largely  to 
have  exterminated  their  European  predecessors,  and 
to  have  been  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Indians. 

When  America  was  discovered,  the  four  great  fam- 
ilies were  spread  in  scattering  and  widely  differing 
tribes  over  the  whole  of  Brazil  and  the  adjacent 
countries.  Their  state  of  culture  varied  from  that 
of  the  most  squalid  tribes  of  Botacudos,  who  had 
not  even  reached  the  Stone  Age,  lived  in  brush 
shelters,  slept  in  the  ashes  of  their  fires,  practised 
promiscuous  marriage,  and  had  no  idea  of  religion 
except  a  fear  of  malignant  spirits ;  up  to  Arawaks, 
who  were  cleanly,  had  a  well-defined  tribal  organis- 
ation, and  built  marvellous  canoes,  or  Tupis,  who 
cultivated  the  soil,  built  fair  houses,  used  rude  ma- 
chinery for  making  mandioc  flour,  spun  cotton,  wove 
cloth,  and  were  good  potters.  But  the  civilisation 
of  the  best  of  them  was  stationary.  No  Brazilian 
tribe  ever  got  beyond  the  condition  where  the 
struggle  to  obtain  food  was  its  sole  preoccupation. 
No  civilisation  like  that  of  Mexico,  Peru,  or  Yucatan 
ever  existed.  Disaggregation,  failure,  and  oblitera- 
tion were  the  rule.  Organically  unfitted  to  cope 
with  their  surroundings  they  never  devised  a  method 
of  getting  a  good  and  permanent  food-supply.      De- 


DISCO  VER  Y 


299 


fective  nutrition  sapped  their  powers  to  resist  strains. 
Their  muscular  appearance  was  not  accompanied  by 
corresponding  endurance,  Tlieir  European  task- 
masters could  never  understand  why  they  died  from 
the  effects  of  exertion  to  which  a  white  man  would 
easily  have  been  equal.  The  vast  majority  had  no 
regular  agriculture  and  lived  on  the  spontaneous 
products  of  the  forests  and  the  streams.     Land  game 


^.-^^^twX 


^!' ■^'mh    \      II  .,iiJi.,  luisiimAiiiiuiiiiiiiLiiiif.iiii^.. 


A    TUPI    VILLAGE. 


is  not  abundant  in  the  tropics,  and  they  had  de- 
veloped only  few  good  food  plants.  What  they  did 
procure  was  spoiled  by  bad  preparation.  Such  a 
people  had  no  chance  of  successfully  resisting  the 
Portuguese  invaders,  and  their  only  hope  of  sur- 
vival was  in  contact  and  admixture  with  the  more 
vigorous  white  and  black  races. 

The  Tupi-Guaranies  occupied  one-fourth  of  Brazil, 


500  BRAZIL 

all  of  Paraguay  and  Uruguay,  and  much  of  Bolivia 
and  the  Argentine,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  original 
seats  of  this  family  were  in  the  central  table-lands  or 
in  Paraguay.  All  Tupi  Indians  spoke  dialects  of  one 
language,  which  the  Jesuit  missionaries  soon  reduced 
to  grammatical  and  literary  form,  and  which  became 
a  lingua  franca  that  was  understood  from  the  Plate 
to  the  Amazon.  Back  of  the  coast-Tupis  were  the 
Botacudos,  the  most  degraded  and  intractable  of 
Brazilian  savages,  remnants  of  whom  still  survive  in 
their  original  seats  in  Espirito  Santo,  Minas,  and  Sao 
Paulo.  The  Caribs,  with  whom  students  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Caribbean  Sea  are  familiar,  originated  in 
the  plains  of  Goyaz  and  Matto  Grosso  and  emigrated 
as  far  north  as  the  Antilles.  The  Arawaks  were 
most  numerous  in  Guiana  and  on  the  Lower  Ama- 
zon, but  were  also  spread  over  central  Brazil. 

The  Brazilian  Indians  did  not  survive  the  white 
man's  coming  to  as  large  an  extent  as  in  Spanish- 
America.  The  pure  Indian  is  found  in  Brazil  only 
in  regions  where  the  white  man  has  not  thought  it 
worth  while  to  take  possession,  and  the  proportion 
of  Indian  blood  is  much  smaller  than  in  surrounding 
countries.  In  many  localities,  evidences  of  Indian 
descent  are  so  rare  as  to  be  remarkable. 

Cabral's  voyage  was  the  real  discovery  of  Brazil, 
if  we  consider  historical  and  political  consequences. 
It  was  the  first  reported  to  Europe;  and  the  Portu- 
guese Crown  immediately  made  formal  claim  to  the 
territory.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  land  which  to- 
day is  a  part  of  Brazilian  territory  had  been  seen  by 
Europeans  before  Cabral  landed.     In  January,  1500, 


DISCO  VER  Y  %0\ 

Vi'ncente  Yanez  Pinzon,  who  had  commanded  the 
Nina  on  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus,  saw  land  in 
the  neigbourhood  of  Cape  St.  Roque.  Bound  west- 
ward, he  bore  away  to  the  west  and  north,  follow- 
ing the  prevailing  winds  and  currents  as  far  as  the 
Orange  Cape,  the  present  extreme  northern  limits 
of  Brazil.  He  was,  therefore,  the  discoverer  of  the 
great  estuary  which  forms  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon. 
He  named  it  the  "Fresh-Water  Sea,"  because  the 
great  river  freshens  the  open  ocean  far  out  of  sight 
of  land,  but  he  did  not  ascend,  nor  even  see,  the 
river  proper.  It  is  also  claimed  on  good  evidence 
that,  six  months  before  Pinzon,  another  Spanish 
navigator,  Alonso  de  Ojeda,  accompanied  by  Ame- 
rigo Vespucci,  had  made  the  South  American  coast 
not  far  from  Cape  St.  Roque;  and  that  a  month 
later  still  another,  Diego  de  Lepe,  did  the  same. 

None  of  these  Spanish  voyages  produced  any  re- 
sults. They  were  not  reported  until  after  the  news 
of  Cabral's  discovery  had  been  solemnly  promul- 
gated to  the  Courts  of  Europe,  and  were  soon  for- 
gotten. The  honour  of  making  Brazil  known  to 
Europe  belongs  to  Cabral  just  as  certainly  as  that 
of  discovering  America  does  to  Columbus.  The 
Spanish  voyages  are  interesting  to  antiquarians, 
but  neither  they  nor  the  Norwegian  voyages  of  the 
eleventh  century  were  followed  up,  or  produced  any 
permanent  results. 

The  news  reached  Portugal  in  the  fall  of  1500, 
and  no  time  was  lost  in  sending  out  a  small  fleet  to 
ascertain  definitely  the  extent,  value,  and  resources 
of  the  region.     The   Portuguese    hoped   to   find  a 


302  BRAZIL 

wealthy  and  civilised  population  like  that  of  India 
— rich  and  unwarlike  nations,  such  as  the  Spaniards 
did  encounter  a  few  years  later  in  Peru  and  Mexico. 
The  exploring  expedition  was  under  the  command 
of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  greatest  technical  navi- 
gator of  the  age.  He  shaped  his  course  so  as  to 
keep  to  the  windward  and  south  of  the  redoubtable 
promontory  of  St.  Roque,  which  the  clumsy  ships 
of  that  day  could  not  weather  in  the  teeth  of  the 
trade-winds  and  the  equatorial  current,  and,  turning 
to  the  south,  made  a  systematic  examination  of 
the  coast  nearly  as  far  as  the  river  Plate,  employing 
five  months  in  the  task.  In  naming  the  rivers, 
capes  and  harbours,  he  saved  his  inventive  faculty 
and  gratified  the  popular  religious  sentiment  by 
calling  each  one  by  the  name  of  the  saint  on  whose 
anniversary  it  was  reached.  Most  of  these  names 
have  survived.  For  example,  the  Sao  Francisco, 
the  largest  river  between  the  Amazon  and  the  Plate, 
is  so  called  because  Vespucci  reached  it  on  October 
I,  1 501,  which  date  is  sacred  to  St.  Francis  in  the 
Roman  calendar.  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  so  named  be- 
cause he  saw  the  great  bay,  whose  entrance  is  nar- 
rower than  many  rivers,  on  New  Year's  Day,  1501. 
He  coasted  along  for  two  thousand  miles,  looking 
eagerly  for  gold,  silver,  spices,  and  civilised  inhabit- 
ants. He  was  disappointed.  The  only  thing  found 
which  seemed  to  have  an  immediate  market  value 
was  brazil-wood— a  dye-wood  that  had  been  used  in 
Europe  for  centuries  and  was  in  great  demand.  Its 
colour  was  a  bright  red — hence  its  name,  whicb 
means  "wood  the  colour  of  fire."      It  was  found  ij. 


DISCO  VER  V  303 

such  abundance  that  the  world's  supply  has  since 
been  drawn  from  this  coast,  and  among  sailors  and 
merchants  the  country  soon  became  known  as  "the 
Country  of  Brazil-wood."  The  name  almost  imme- 
diately supplanted  "Santa  Cruz."  Vespucci  saw 
that  the  country  was  fertile  and  the  climate  pleasant. 
This  was  not  enough  to  satisfy  his  greedy  employers. 
A  government  whose  coffers  were  beginning  to  over- 
flow with  the  profits  of  the  Indian  spice-trade  and 
the  African  mines  was  not  inclined  to  pay  much 
attention  to  a  region  without  the  precious  metals, 
and  inhabited  only  by  naked  savages.  The  reports 
of  the  abundance  of  brazil-wood,  however,  induced 
private  adventurers  to  go  and  cut  that  valuable 
commodity.  The  government  declared  it  a  Portu- 
guese monopoly,  but  the  high  price  of  the  article 
made  the  trade  so  enormously  profitable,  that  ships 
of  other  nationalities,  especially  French,  could  not 
be  excluded. 

The  coast  soon  became  well  known,  but  the  Por- 
tuguese government  did  not  extend  its  explorations 
to  the  south.  It  was  left  to  the  Spaniards  to  find 
the  passage  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  to  explore 
the  tributaries  of  the  Plate.  The  southern  exten- 
sion of  the  continent  became  and  remains  Spanish. 
No  exact  records  exist  of  the  earliest  Portuguese 
explorations  of  the  northern  coast  from  Cape  St. 
Roque  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon.  We  only 
know  that  some  Portuguese  ships  navigated  those 
waters  and  that  Spain  never  seriously  disputed 
Portugal's  title  to  that  region. 

For  thirty  years  Brazil  remained  unsettled,  though 


304 


BRAZIL 


the  fleets  going  to  the  East  Indies  often  stopped 
in  its  admirable  harbours  to  refit  and  take  water. 
Private  adventurers  came  for  brazil-wood  and  the 
French  poached  more  and  more  frequently.  Soon 
the  latter  began  to  establish  little  factories  to  which 
they  returned  year  after  year,  and  got  on  good  terms 
with  the  aborigines.  It  became  evident  that  Portu- 
gal must  establish  fortified,  self-sustaining  posts  if 
she  expected  to  retain  the  territory. 


CHAPTER   III 

DESCRIPTION 

CABRAL'S  discovery  bequeathed  to  the  Portu- 
guese race  one  of  the  largest,  most  product- 
ive, and  valuable  political  divisions  of  the  globe. 
The  area  is  3,150,000  square  miles — larger  than  the 
United  States  without  Alaska,  and  surpassed  only 
by  the  British,  Russian,  Chinese,  and  American  em- 
pires. From  north  to  south  it  extends  2600  miles, 
and  east  and  west  2700.  Lying  across  the  equator 
and  traversed  by  no  very  high  mountain  ranges,  its 
climate  is  more  uniform  than  any  other  equally  large 
inhabited  region,  but  its  extent  is  so  immense  that 
there  are  very  considerable  variations. 

Compact  in  form,  with  a  continuous  seacoast, 
unsurpassable  harbours,  and  a  great  extension  of 
navigable  rivers,  water  communication  between  the 
different  parts  is  easy  and  the  danger  of  dismember- 
ment by  external  attack  a  minimum.  Occupying 
the  central  portion  of  South  America  it  touches  all 
the  other  countries  of  the  continent  except  Chile, 
uniting  them  geographically,  and  to  a  large  extent 
controlling  land   communication   among  them.     It 

305 


VOL.  I. — 20. 


306  BRAZIL 

is  nearer  Europe  and  Africa  than  any  other  South 
American  country,  and  is  also  on  the  direct  route 
between  the  North  Atlantic  and  both  coasts  of 
South  America.  Situated  in  latitudes  where  evapor- 
ation and  precipitation  are  largest,  where  the  trade- 
winds  unfailingly  bring  moisture  from  the  Atlantic, 
and  on  the  eastern  and  windward  slope  of  the  nar- 
rowest of  the  continents,  Brazil  has  the  steadiest 
and  most  uniformly  distributed  rainfall  of  any  large 
part  of  the  globe. 

The  exuberance  of  life  in  Brazil  must  be  seen  to 
be  realised.  The  early  voyagers  related  the  wonder 
and  admiration  which  they  felt,  Amerigo  Vespucci 
said  that  if  Paradise  did  exist  on  this  planet  it  could 
not  be  far  from  the  Brazilian  coast.  Agassiz  be- 
lieved that  the  future  centre  of  the  civilisation  of 
the  world  would  be  in  the  Amazon  valley.  The 
plants  useful  for  food,  and  in  industry,  commerce, 
and  medicine,  are  innumerable.  Nowhere  except  in 
Ceylon  does  the  palm  flourish  so.  There  are  more 
plants  indigenous  to  Brazil  than  to  any  other  coun- 
try, and  many  species,  like  coffee,  transplanted  there 
have  doubled  in  productiveness.  Indian  corn  and 
mandioc  were  already  cultivated  by  the  Indians  when 
Cabral  landed,  and  both  upland  and  lowland  rice 
grew  wild.  The  soil  lends  itself  kindly  to  any  kind 
of  culture,  and  in  most  cases  two  crops  may  be 
reaped  annually.  In  a  word  the  subsoil,  the  soil, 
the  atmosphere,  the  forests,  and  the  waters  of  Brazil 
are  teeming  with  life  and  full  of  potential  wealth — 
too  much  so,  perhaps,  for  the  most  wholesome  de- 
velopment of  the  human  race. 


308  BRAZIL 

The  most  extensive  and  the  least-developed  part 
of  Brazil  is  the  Amazon  valley.  The  Brazilian  por- 
tion of  the  Amazon  basin  comprises  forty-five  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  territory  of  the  republic.  The 
northern  and  south-eastern  borders  slope  up  to  the 
surrounding  mountains,  but  the  rest  is  an  early  level 
plain,  little  elevated  above  the  sea.  The  plains  are 
covered  with  dense  forests,  much  of  the  country 
is  frequently  flooded,  and  communication  is  only 
possible  by  the  streams.  In  their  neighbourhood 
the  climate  Ib  in  many  localities  unhealthful,  and 
is  everywhere  tropical  and  rainy.  Back  from  the 
rivers  is  an  unexplored  and  unknown  wilderness. 
The  Amazon  with  its  tributaries  forms  the  greatest 
of  all  navigable  fluvial  systems.  Ten  thousand  seven 
hundred  miles  are  already  known  to  be  suitable  for 
navigation  by  steamboats,  and  four  thousand  eight 
hundred  more  for  smaller  boats. 

It  is  in  the  narrow  coast-plain  on  the  Atlantic,  and 
in  the  high  regions  lying  to  the  east  and  south  of 
the  great  central  depression,  that  the  Brazilian  peo- 
ple live. 

The  main  orographical  feature  of  non-Amazonian 
Brazil  is  the  great  mountain  system  which  extends 
uninterruptedly  from  the  northern  coast  through 
the  whole  country.  This  continental  uplift  corre- 
sponds to  the  Andes  on  the  west  coast,  just  as  the 
Apalachians  do  to  the  Rockies  in  North  America. 
Its  relative  importance  is  many  times  greater  on  ac- 
count of  its  great  width,  and  because  a  broad  plateau 
nearly  connects  it  with  the  Andes  between  the 
headwaters  of  the  Amazon  and  Plate  river  systems. 


DESCRIPTION  309 

The  joint  result  is  that  two-thirds  of  Brazil  is  high 
enough  to  have  a  moderate  and  healthful  climate, 
but  the  cataracts  in  the  rivers  and  the  steep  escarp- 
ments of  the  mountains  make  it  difficult  of  access. 

The  promontory  of  South  America  which  reaches 
out  to  the  north-east,  looking  in  a  direct  line  to  the 
western  extremity  of  Africa,  is  a  region  of  gentle 
slopes,  of  wide,  sparsely  wooded  plateaux,  and  of 
brush-covered  hills.  At  long  intervals,  the  interior 
is  subject  to  severe  drouths.  The  soil  is  fertile  as  a 
rule  and  the  rainfall  generally  sufficient  for  cereal 
crops.  Nearing  the  sea  precipitation  increases,  and 
cotton  and  sugar  thrive.  The  mountain  ranges 
rarely  exceed  three  thousand  feet  in  height,  and  lie 
far  back  from  the  coast,  from  which  the  countr}^ 
slopes  up  gradually.  This  region  was  the  first  in 
Brazil  to  contain  a  large  population,  and  the  Dutch 
fought  hard  for  it  during  the  seventeenth  century. 
In  its  area  of  430,000  square  miles  seven  of  the 
Brazilian  states  are  included  —  Maranhao,  Piauhy, 
Ceara,  Rio  Grande  do  Norte,  Parahyba,  Pernambuco, 
and  Alagoas.  The  promontory  c_  St.  Roque,  where 
the  coast  turns  from  an  east-and-west  direction  to 
a  north-and-south,  marks  a  commercial  division. 
Sailing  vessels  found  it  difficult  to  round  this  cape 
from  the  north,  and  consequently  the  commercial  re- 
lations of  Maranhao,  Piauhy,  and  Ceara  have  been 
rather  with  the  Amazon  than  southern  Brazil. 
South  of  St.  Roque  the  region  is  most  easily  acces- 
sible from  Europe  and  is  on  the  direct  line  of  com- 
munication between  both  sides  of  the  North  Atlantic 
and  the  coasts  to  the  south. 


3  ID  BRAZIL 

The  region  drained  by  the  Tocantins  and  Ara- 
guaya very  nearly  corresponds  with  the  state  of 
Goyaz.  It  is  the  western  slope  of  the  Brazilian 
Cordillera,  and  differs  radically  from  the  Amazonian 
plain,  which  it  adjoins.  As  one  ascends  the  Tocan- 
tins and  Araguaya  from  their  mouths  m  the  Amazon 
estuary  the  altitude  rapidly  rises  and  navigation  is 
quickly  interrupted  by  cataracts.  In  the  south  the 
level  rises  to  over  four  thousand  feet,  and  the  climate 
shows  a  considerable  range  of  temperature,  with  the 
thermometer  sometimes  falling  below  freezing  in  the 
higher  mountains.  Though  the  area  is  350,000  square 
miles,  the  population  hardly  reaches  a  quarter  of  a 
million,  and  has  not  been  increasing  rapidly  since  the 
exhaustion  of  the  alluvial  gold  deposits.  Roughly 
speaking,  it  may  be  described  as  a  region  well  adapted 
to  cattle  and  agriculture,  and  composed  of  high,  open, 
rolling  plateaux  traversed  by  low  mountain  ranges 
and  well-wooded  river  valleys. 

The  next  natural  division  comprises  the  oval  de- 
pression lying  between  the  great  cential  watershed 
and  the  high  range  which  runs  straight  north  from 
Rio  within  a  few  hundred  miles  of  the  coast.  This 
is  the  Sao  Francisco  valley.  Politically  and  com- 
mercially connected  is  the  adjacent  coast-plain. 
Valley  and  plain  are  divided  into  the  four  states  of 
Minas,  Bahia,  Sergipe,  and  Espirito  Santo,  \vith 
430,000  square  miles  and  6,000,000  inhabitants,  in 
the  coast-plain  the  rainfall  is  greater  than  farther 
north,  and  the  soil  is  very  fertile,  producing  not 
only  cotton,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  but  coffee,  maize, 
and  mandioc.     The  slopes  are  more  abrupt  and  the 


DE  SCRIP  TION"  311 

mountains  begin  closer  to  the  sea.  The  interior  is 
a  great  plateau  traversed  by  high  mountain  ranges 
and  the  tributaries  of  the  Sao  Francisco  River. 
Most  of  this  plateau  is  included  in  the  great  state  of 
Minas,  the  most  populous  member  of  the  Brazilian 
union,  which  is  agriculturally  self-sui^cing,  and  one 
of  the  great  mineral  regions  of  the  world.  The  rain- 
fall is  abundant,  the  climate  is  healthful  and  bracing, 
the  birth-rate  is  large,  and  the  region  is  admirably 
adapted  to  the  white  races.  Its  general  character  is 
a  rolling  plateau,  three  to  four  thousand  feet  above 
the  ocean,  forming  extensive,  treeless  plains,  which 
are  interspersed  with  wooded  mountain  chains,  river 
valleys,  and  extensive  tracts  of  brush-land.  The 
European  who  visits  the  Sao  Francisco  valley  is 
astonished  to  find  a  country  where  the  climate  is 
temperate  and  the  soil  fitted  to  the  production  of  all 
sorts  of  food  crops  including  the  cereals,  and  where, 
nevertheless,  proximity  to  the  equator  makes  prac- 
ticable a  multiplicity  of  crops  in  a  single  year.  The 
coast-plain,  which  forms  the  greatest  part  of  Bahia, 
Sergipe,  and  Espirito  Santo,  is  fertile,  but  the 
climate  is  enervating  to  Europeans,  and  the  propor- 
tion of  black  blood  there  is  the  largest  in  Brazil. 

About  the  twentieth  degree  the  mountains  ap- 
proach close  to  the  coast,  and  from  Victoria  south 
to  the  thirtieth  degree  the  Atlantic  border  of  Brazil 
is  steep  and  mountainous,  often  rising  directly  from 
the  sea  to  a  height  of  two  thousand  to  six  thousand 
feet.  It  is  a  coast  of  splendid  harbours  and  magni- 
ficent scenery.  The  drainage  is  mostly  inland  into 
the  Plate  system,  and  water  falling  within  a  dozen 


312  BRAZIL 

miles  of  the  ocean  flows  2500  miles  before  reaching 
the  sea. 

To  this  rule  there  is  but  one  important  exception 
— the  Parahyba  River,  the  basin  of  which  is  practi- 
cally coterminous  with  the  state  of  Rio  de  Janeiro 
and  the  federal  district.  This  state  is  commer- 
cially and  politically  very  important,  although  its 
area  is  small.  The  surface  is  very  mountainous  and 
the  soil  mostly  inferior  to  that  of  the  divisions  to 
the  north  and  south.  However,  it  is  still  an  immense 
producer  of  coffee  and  sugar.  Its  geographical  situa- 
tion and  great  harbour  have  made  it  the  most  thickly 
settled  part  of  the  country.  The  rainfall  is  very 
large,  especially  on  the  mountains  nearest  the  sea, 
which  are  covered  with  magnificent  forests.  The 
coast-plain  is  warm  though  not  unhealthful,  save  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  infected  city  of  Rio,  and  in  the 
higher  regions  the  climate  is  delightful  and  in  tem- 
perature almost  European.  The  northern  boundary 
is  the  Mantiqueira  range  which  divides  the  Parahyba 
basin  from  the  valleys  of  the  Parana  and  Sao  Fran- 
cisco. This  range  is  the  highest  in  Brazil,  and  its 
culminating  peak — Itatiaya  —is  ten  thousand  feet 
high,  though  it  is  only  seventy  miles  from  the  sea. 
Slightly  lower  ranges  lie  between  the  Mantiqueira 
and  the  ocean,  and  of  these  the  highest  is  Pedro 
d'Assu — 7365  feet — which  overlooks  Rio  harbour, 
only  twenty  miles  away. 

The  Brazilian  portion  of  the  great  Parand  valley 
presents  a  remarkable  uniformity  of  general  charac- 
teristics. Bordering  the  sea  is  a  range  of  mount- 
ains, or  rather  the  abrupt  escarpment  of  the  plateau, 


DE  SCRIP  TION  3 1 3 

some  three  thousand  feet  high.  From  its  summit 
the  surface  slopes  gently  to  the  Avest,  draining  into 
the  Parana  by  a  hundred  streams,  many  of  which 
are  navigable  in  their  middle  courses.  This  great 
plateau — with  its  area  of  about  250,000  square  miles 
— is  mostly  treeless  toward  the  north,  but  in  the 
south  is  covered  with  pine  forests.  It  lies  in  the  tem- 
perate zone  and  snow  sometimes  falls  on  the  higher 
peaks  and  cJiapadas  of  Sao  Paulo.  The  soil  is  re- 
markably fertile,  and  this  is  the  coffee  region  par 
excellence  of  the  world.  A  coffee  tree  in  Sao  Paulo 
produces  two  to  four  times  as  much  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  globe.  Food  crops  grow  well,  and  the  coun- 
try might  be  economically  independent  of  the  rest 
of  the  world.  The  contour  of  the  country  is  favour- 
able to  railroad-building  and  the  region  is  easily 
penetrable.  From  their  settlements  on  the  seaward 
border  of  this  plateau  the  Paulistas  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  roamed  over  the  whole  interior  of 
South  America,  enslaving  the  Indians  and  driving 
out  the  Spanish  Jesuits.  The  rainfall  diminishes 
toward  the  interior,  and  there  is  an  ill-defined  limit 
where  it  ceases  to  be  sufficient  for  coffee.  The  coffee 
district  is  also  limited  by  the  lowering  of  average 
temperature  with  increasing  latitude.  The  three 
states  of  Sao  Paulo,  Parana,  and  Santa  Catharina 
contain  most  of  the  region  under  description,  but 
south-western  Minas  and  extreme  southern  Goyaz 
also  belong  to  it. 

The  great  plateau  gradually  dies  away  to  the 
south  ending  with  a  low  escarpment  across  the  state 
of  Rio  Grand  do  Sul.     Physically  and  geographic- 


314  BRAZIL 

ally,  this  State  is  different  from  the  rest  of  Brazil. 
Most  of  its  area  is  drained  by  the  Uruguay  River, 
and  its  natural  relations  and  affinities  are  with  the 
republic  of  that  name.  Rio  Grande's  ninety-five 
thousand  square  miles  contain  over  a  million  inhab- 
itants, and  the  open,  rolling  plains,  nowhere  much 
elevated  above  the  sea,  are  excellently  adapted  to 
cattle.  The  northern  portion  is  higher,  more  broken, 
and  more  wooded  than  the  southern,  and  agriculture 
has  made  greater  progress.  The  climate  is  distinctly 
that  of  the  temperate  zone — hot  in  summer,  cold  in 
winter,  and  subject  to  sudden  variations  on  account 
of  the  winds  which  sweep  up  from  the  vast  Argent- 
ine pampas.  The  inhabitants  are  big,  vigorous, 
and  hardy,  and  great  riders.  All  the  products  of 
the  temperate  zone,  including  the  cereals,  flourish, 
and  this  part  of  Brazil  seems  destined  to  great  things 
in  the  near  future. 

From  Bolivia  around  to  Uruguay  sweeps  in  a 
great  semicircle,  convex  to  the  north,  a  plateau  that 
nearly  unites  the  Andes  with  the  Eastern  Cordillera, 
and  forms  the  watershed  between  the  Amazon  and 
the  Plate.  Its  eastern  horn  has  already  been  de- 
scribed as  forming  the  states  of  Sao  Paulo,  Parana, 
and  Santa  Catharina;  its  western  and  central  por- 
tions form  the  great  interior  state  of  Matto  Grosso. 
Here  the  headwaters  of  the  Madeira,  Tapajos,  and 
Xingu,  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  intertwine  with 
those  of  the  Paraguay  and  Parana.  The  narrow 
depression  which  the  Upper  Paraguay  forms  across 
it  is  the  only  portion  that  has  yet  been  described. 
The    rest    of   the   410,000   square    miles   of    Matto 


DESCRIPTION 


315 


Grosso  is  abandoned  to  Indians  and  wild  beasts. 
Only  enough  is  known  of  these  solitudes  to  prove 
that  in  the  centre  of  the  continent  exists  a  well- 
watered,  fertile,  and  healthful  region,  capable  of 
sustaining  an  immense  population,  but  which  is  shut 
off  from  development  by  lack  of  means  of  com- 
munication. The  northwestern  part  could  be  reached 
from  the  Amazon  if  the  Falls  of  the  Madeira  could 
be  overcome,  a  route  which  would  also  open  up  a 
great  and  now  inaccessible  portion  of  Bolivia. 


CHAPTER   IV 


EARLY    COLONISATION 


THE  permanent  settlement  of  Brazil  was  begun 
by  deserters  and  mutineers  set  on  shore  from 
ships  on  their  way  to  India  or  to  cut  brazil-wood. 
In  1509  a  certain  Diego  Alvarez,  nicknamed  by  the 
Indians  "Caramuru,"  or  "man  of  lightning, "  landed 
at  Bahia  and  escaped  being  eaten  by  frightening  the 
Indians  with  his  musket.  He  married  a  chief's 
daughter,  and  when  a  real  colony  was  established 
years  later  he  and  his  numerous  half-breed  descend- 
ants proved  of  great  use  to  his  compatriots.  Two 
years  later  John  Ramalho  did  much  the  same  near 
Santos,  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  south.  The  story 
of  the  last  of  the  three  authentic  degradados  is  even 
more  romantic.  His  name  was  Aleixo  Garcia,  and 
with  three  companions  he  landed  about  1526  in 
the  present  state  of  Santa  Catharina.  Collecting 
an  army  of  Indians  he  led  them  on  a  conquering 
and  gold-hunting  expedition  over  the  coast-range, 
across  the  great  plateau,  into  the  valley  of  the  Para- 
guay, and  even  penetrated  ten  years  before  Pizarro 
into  territory  tributary  to  the  Incas  of  Peru.      He 

316 


EARLY  COLONISATION  317 

finally  perished  in  the  centre  of  the  continent,  but 
when,  years  afterwards,  the  Spaniards  penetrated 
the  valley  of  the  Parana  they  found  that  the  Indians 
already  knew  of  white  men  and  firearms. 

As  early  as  15 16  the  Portuguese  government  of- 
fered to  give  farming  utensils  free  to  settlers  in  Bra- 
zil, and  it  is  probable  that  shortly  afterwards  some 
sugar  was  planted.  The  first  serious  and  official 
effort  to  cultivate  sugar  was  made  in  1526.  Christ- 
ovao  Jaques  founded  a  factory  on  the  island  of  Ita- 
marica,  a  few  miles  north  of  Pernambuco.  It  was 
shortly  destroyed  by  the  French  brazil-wood  hunt- 
ers, and  the  settlers  fled  to  the  site  of  Pernambuco 
and  renewed  the  effort  pending  the  arrival  of  re-en- 
forcements. Seekers  of  brazil-wood  hailing  from 
Honfleur  and  Dieppe  were  swarming  along  the  coast. 
The  value  of  the  region  for  sugar  raising  began  to 
be  appreciated.  When  the  news  came  of  the  failure 
of  the  Spanish  expedition  which  Cabot  had  led  to 
the  Plate,  the  Portuguese  government  determined 
to  fit  out  a  considerable  expedition,  composed  of 
colonists  and  families  as  well  as  soldiers  and  advent- 
urers. Seduced  by  the  cry,  "We  are  going  to  the 
Silver  River,"  four  hundred  persons  enlisted.  The 
five  vessels  were  commanded  by  Martim  Affonso  da 
Souza,  a  great  general  and  navigator,  who  had  al- 
ready proved  his  capacity  and  who  later  went  to 
the  very  top  in  the  East  Indian  wars.  He  was  in- 
structed to  expel  all  intruders  and  establish  a  per- 
manent fortified  colony.  Early  in  1531  he  reached 
the  coast  near  Pernambuco,  captured  three  French 
ships  laden  with  brazil-wood,  and  sent  two  caravels 


3l8  BRAZIL 

north  to  explore  the  coast  beyond  Cape  St.  Roque, 
while  he  himself  sailed  south  with  the  idea  of  found- 
ing a  colony  on  the  Plate.  But  after  passing  Santa 
Catharina  he  was  unfortunate  in  losing  his  largest 
ship  with  most  of  his  provisions,  and  deemed  it  safer 
to  return  toward  the  north.  At  Sao  Vicente,  now 
a  little  town  near  the  great  coffee  port  of  Santos,  he 
dropped  anchor,  and  there,  January,  1532,  founded 
the  first  Portuguese  colony  in  Brazil.  Near  this 
point  lived  the  solitary  Portuguese,  John  Ramalho, 
surrounded  by  his  half-breed  descendants,  and  he 
gave  his  countrymen  a  glad  reception.  He  soon 
showed  them  the  way  up  the  mountains  to  the  high 
plateau  which  begins  only  a  few  miles  from  the  sea. 
Another  settlement  was  founded  on  these  fertile 
plains  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Sao  Paulo. 

In  the  west  of  Brazil  the  settlements  were  estab- 
lished at  a  striking  distance  from  the  coast,  but  in 
Sao  Paulo  the  colonists  could  more  easily  spread 
over  the  open  plains  of  the  interior  than  along  the 
mountainous  coast.  On  top  of  their  plateau  they 
were  cut  off  from  ready  communication  with  the 
mother  country  ;  they  struck  out  for  themselves,  and 
their  development  was  something  like  that  of  the 
British  in  North  America.  They  were  the  pioneers 
of  Brazil,  corresponding  closely  in  character  and  hab- 
its, in  the  virtues  of  daring,  hospitality,  and  self-con- 
fidence, and  in  the  vices  of  cruelty,  rudeness,  and 
ignorance,  with  the  pioneers  of  the  Mississippi  valley. 

The  Paulistas  were  all  profoundly  influenced  by 
their  intimate  association  with  the  Indian  tribes. 
In  the  early  days  intermarriages  were  frequent,  but 


EARLY  COLONISATION-  319 

the  continual  re-enforcement  of  the  European  ele- 
ment, and  the  inferiority  in  capacity  of  reproduction 
which  the  Indian  has  shown  in  Brazil,  make  the 
traces  of  that  intermixture  hard  to  discov^er  at  the 
present  time.  The  Paulistas  and  their  descendants 
in  the  interior  states  are  taller,  slenderer,  darker, 
and  more  active  and  graceful  than  the  modern  Por- 
tuguese. Their  hands  and  feet  are  smaller,  their 
movements  more  nervous,  their  manners  more  self- 
confident. 

The  successful  founding  of  a  considerable  colony 
in  Brazil  aroused  interest  at  home,  and  many  court- 
iers solicited  the  Crown  for  grants.  It  was  decided 
to  partition  the  whole  coast  into  feudal  fiefs,  each 
proprietor  undertaking  the  expenses  of  colonisation 
and  being  given  virtually  sovereign  powers  in  re- 
turn for  a  tax  on  the  expected  production.  Each  of 
these  "captaincies"  measured  fifty  leagues  along 
the  coast,  and  extended  indefinitely  into  the  interior. 
In  1534  twelve  such  fiefs  were  created,  covering  the 
whole  coast  from  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon  to  the 
island  of  Santa  Catharina — these  being  the  points 
where  the  Tordesillas  line  met  the  seaboard. 

Six  of  these  proprietors  succeeded  in  establishing 
permanent  colonies.  Martim  Affonso's  settlement 
has  already  been  described.  In  1536  his  brother, 
Pero  Lopes,  established  Santo  Amaro  within  a  few 
miles  of  Sao  Vicente.  Naturally  its  history  soon 
became  confounded  with  that  of  the  larger  settle- 
ment. Duarte  Coelho  founded  Pernambuco  in 
1535,  and  in  it  was  soon  absorbed  Itamarica,  the 
second  of  the  two  colonies  founded  by  Pero  Lopes 


320  BRAZIL 

in  1536.  The  other  three  permanent  settlements 
were  Victoria,  the  nucleus  of  the  present  state  of 
Espirito  Santo,  Porto  Seguro,  and  Ilheos.  No  one 
of  them  prospered,  and  their  territories  are  still 
among  the  most  backward  parts  of  the  Brazilian 
coast.  The  donatory  of  the  territory  which  in- 
cluded the  bay  of  Bahia,  started  a  town,  but  it  was 
destroyed  by  Indians.  The  other  five  captaincies 
were  not  taken  hold  of  seriously  by  their  proprietors. 
The  four  nuclei  for  the  settlement  of  Brazil  were 
Sao  Paulo,  Pernambuco,  and  the  later  colonies  of 
Bahia  and  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

Martim  Affonso  recked  little  of  his  fief  or  its  re- 
venues and  left  his  Paulistas  to  work  out  their  own 
destiny.  Pernambuco  was  on  the  track  of  every 
ship  which  came  to  South  America,  the  neighbour- 
ing interior  was  level  and  easily  accessible  from 
the  coast,  the  soil  and  climate  were  suitable  for 
sugar,  and  from  the  beginning  relations  with  the 
mother  country  were  intimate  and  continuous.  Its 
proprietor,  Duarte  Coelho,  determined  to  devote 
himself  to  his  colony,  and  he  personally  headed  a 
numerous  and  carefully  selected  colonising  expe- 
dition. He  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  there,  and  died 
twenty  years  later,  surrounded  by  a  large  and  pros- 
perous colony,  which  was  already  a  self-supporting 
state  with  all  the  elements  of  permanence.  A  good 
business  man  and  liberal  for  that  age,  he  granted 
land  on  easy  terms ;  its  possession  was  secure ;  con- 
tributions were  moderate;  and  he  resolutely  de- 
fended himself  and  his  grantees  from  the  exactions 
of  the  Crown. 


EARLY  COLONISATION  32 1 

The  Portuguese  occupation  of  Brazil  was  induced 
solely  by  commercial  considerations.  Explorers 
and  emigrants  went  out  to  make  their  fortunes,  not 
to  escape  religious  or  political  tyranny.  When  the 
first  voyagers  were  disappointed  in  not  finding  gold 
mines,  they  turned  their  attention  to  brazil-wood. 
Soon  the  suitability  of  the  territory  for  sugar  was 
discovered.  The  European  demand  for  this  luxury 
was  increasing,  and  the  Portuguese  had  become 
familiar  with  its  culture  in  Africa.  Cane  was  taken 
from  Madeira  and  the  Cape  Verdes  to  Brazil  before 
1525,  and  there  is  a  record  of  exportation  at  least  as 
early  as  1526.  Hen^  was  found  the  basis  for  the 
real  colonisation.  From  the  very  start  the  industry 
prospered  in  Pernambuco,  and  Brazil  became  the 
main  source  of  the  world's  supply. 

Near  Pernambuco  little  trouble  was  experienced 
with  the  Indians.  Many  of  the  tribes  were  allies  of 
the  Portuguese,  though  the  fierce  Aymores  fought 
the  settlers  and  once  reduced  the  infant  colony  to 
the  verge  of  destruction.  Although  the  law  of 
Portugal  forbade  the  enslavement  of  Indians  except 
as  a  punishment  for  crime,  they  were  reduced  to 
bondage  on  a  large  scale  in  Pernambuco,  and  the 
Paulistas  never  paid  any  attention  to  this  prohibi- 
tion. 

By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  Brazil 
contained  one  rapidly  expanding  colony  of  sugar- 
planters,  Pernambuco,  which  gave  sure  promise  of 
wealth  if  not  attacked  from  without, ^ — a  half  dozen 
moribund  settlements  on  the  thousand  miles  of 
coast  to  the  south,  and  an  isolated  but  vigorous  and 

VOL.  I. — 21. 


322  BRAZIL 

self-sufficing  group  in  Sao  Paulo,  whose  inhabitants 
produced  little  for  export,  but  who  were  reducing 
the  aborigines  to  slavery  in  an  expanding  circle.  In 
the  last  there  was  a  considerable  proportion  of  In- 
dian blood  and  in  the  first  a  large  number  of  negroes. 
The  smaller  captaincies  were  little  more  than  resorts 
for  pirates  and  contraband  traders  in  brazil-wood. 
The  settlers  were  powerless  to  prevent  the  French 
expeditions  which  yearly  became  more  numerous. 
Serious  apprehensions  were  felt  that  the  French 
would  occupy  the  coast  and  make  Brazil  a  basis  for 
attacks  on  Portugal's  African  and  Indian  empires. 

The  best  blood  of  the  Portuguese  nation  was  being 
drained  away  in  exhausting  wars  and  expeditions  to 
India  and  Africa;  absolute  government  was  sapping 
civic  vitality  ;  the  extravagances  of  Court  and  nobles 
were  impoverishing  the  country.  However,  enough 
vitality  remained,  before  the  terrific  destruction  of 
Portuguese  power  and  pride  at  Alcacer-Kibir  in 
1580,  to  secure  such  a  firm  establishment  of  the  Por- 
tuguese race  on  the  whole  coast  of  Brazil  that  it 
never  has  been  dislodged,  and  only  once  seriously 
threatened.  This  result  was  largely  due  to  the 
founding  of  a  strong  military  and  naval  post  at 
Bahia,  around  which  grew  up  a  prosperous  colony, 
and  under  whose  protection  Pernambuco  spread  out 
over  the  north-east  coast,  Sao  Paulo  developed  un- 
interruptedly, and  Rio  Bay  was  saved  from  the 
French. 

The  first  proprietary  settlement  in  Bahia  Bay  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  Indians,  but  this  magnificent 
and  central  harbour  was  manifestly  the  most  con- 


EARLY  COLONISATION  323 

venient  point  whence  to  send  assistance  to  the  other 
settlements  and  guard  the  whole  coast.  In  1549  the 
king  determined  to  build  a  fortress  and  city  there. 
Thomas  de  Souza,  the  illegitimate  scion  of  a  great 
house,  was  chosen  the  first  governor-general.  He 
sailed  in  April,  1549,  with  six  vessels,  and  accom- 
panied by  three  hundred  and  twenty  officials  and  a 
number  of  colonists.  The  new  capital  commanded 
the  entrance  to  a  magnificent  inland  sea  which  of- 
fered splendid  facilities  for  the  establishment  of  a 
flourishing  state.  Bahia  Bay  is  nearly  a  hundred 
miles  in  circumference;  its  shores  are  fertile  and 
penetrated  by  rivers;  each  plantation  has  its  own 
wharves..  Within  a  few  months  a  town  of  a  hundred 
houses  had  been  built,  surrounded  by  a  wall  and  de- 
fended by  batteries;  a  cathedral,  a  custom  house,  a 
Jesuit  college,  and  a  governor's  residence  were  under 
way. 

Thomas  de  Souza  was  instructed  to  strike  at  the 
root  of  the  difficulties  that  were  supposed  to  have 
prevented  the  success  of  the  proprietary  captaincies. 
He  was  the  direct  representative  of  the  king  and  had 
supreme  supervisory  power.  Other  officers,  how- 
ever, were  associated  with  him  who  were  independ- 
ently responsible  in  judicial,  financial,  and  naval 
matters.  He  was  closely  bound  by  instructions 
covering  every  detail  that  could  be  foreseen,  and 
these  instructions  clearly  show  the  centralising  and 
jealous  spirit  of  Portuguese  institutions  and  ideas. 

Few  Portuguese  of  that  age  were  capable  of  rising 
to  an  appreciation  of  the  economical  advantages  of 
freedom.     The   liberal  concessions  to   the  orig-inal 


324 


BRAZIL 


proprietors — free  trade  with  the  mother  country,  the 
riy;ht  of  communication  with  foreign  countries,  and 
judicial  and  administrative  independence — availed 
nothing.  Neither  colonists,  proprietors,  nor  the 
central  government  could  understand  or  apply  them. 
Brazil  was  subjected  to  a  systematic  and  continually 
more  rigorous  exploitation  by  the  home  govern- 
ment, and  to  the  irresponsible  and  uncontrolled 
military  despotism  of  little  satraps. 

In   Bahia,  as  in   Pernambuco,  the  sugar  industry 
prospered   from   the  beginning.     Bahia  is  close  to 


BAHIA. 


Africa  and  navigation  across  is  safe  and  easy.  The 
importation  of  blacks  began  immediately,  and  the 
port  continued  to  be  the  greatest  entrepot  and  dis- 
tributing point  for  the  trade  during  three  centuries. 
Bahia's  population  is  more  largely  black  than  that 
of  any  other  city  in  Brazil,  and  the  pure  African 
type  is  frequently  seen  on  its  streets.  The  local 
cuisine  includes  many  dishes  of  African  origin,  and 
the  local  dialect  many  African  words.     Certain  Af- 


EARLY  COLONISATION 


325 


rican  dialects  are  spoken  to  this  day,  and  a  few 
Mohammedan  negroes  there  still  perform  the  rites 
of  the  Koran  in  the  most  absolute  secrecy. 

The  municipal  government  of  the  town,  though 
under  the  overshadowing  power  of  the  governor, 
showed  some  vitality  and  independence.  The  fertile 
island  of  Itaparica,  just  opposite  the  city,  had  been 
granted  to  the  mother  of  a  minister.  Though  the 
donation  was  repeatedly  confirmed  by  the  king  him- 
self, she  and  her  heirs  were  never  able  to  put  their 
agents  in  possession.  The  municipal  council  suc- 
cessfully insisted  that  the  original  royal  instructions 
to  the  governor  required  all  grantees  to  occupy  their 
estates  in  person. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE   JESUITS 


ONE  of  John  III.'s  strongest  reasons  for  under- 
taking a  more  extensive  colonisation  of  Brazil 
was  the  pious  conviction  that  it  was  his  Christian 
duty  to  promote  the  dissemination  of  the  true  re- 
ligion in  dominions  which  he  owed  to  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Father.  He  was  the  first  and  most  steadfast 
friend  of  the  Jesuits,  then  just  organised  and  San 
Francisco  Xavier,  the  Apostle  of  the  East  Indies, 
was  sent  out  to  one  hemisphere,  while  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Brazilian  aborigines  was  determined  upon 
in  the  other.  With  Thomas  de  Souza  sailed  an  able 
Jesuit,  Manuel  Nobrega,  accompanied  by  several 
other  Fathers.  They  began  a  carefully  planned 
campaign  to  convert  the  Indians  and,  incidentally, 
to  exploit  them  in  the  interests  of  the  Order. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  courage,  shrewd- 
ness, and  devotion  of  the  Jesuits.  They  went  out 
alone  among  the  savage  tribes,  living  with  them, 
learning  their  languages,  preaching  to  them,  captiv- 
ating their  imaginations  by  the  pomp  of  religious 
paraphernalia  and  processions,  baptising  them,  and 

326 


THE  JESUITS  327 

exhorting  them  to  abandon  cannibalism  and  poly- 
gamy. Tireless  and  fearless,  they  plunged  into  an 
interior  hitherto  impenetrated  by  white  men.  The 
reports  they  made  to  their  superiors  frequently 
afford  the  best  information  that  is  yet  extant  as  to 
the  customs  of  the  Indians  and  the  resources  of  the 
regions  they  explored. 

The  Indians  were  easily  induced  to  conform  to 
the  externals  of  the  Christian  cult.  Wherever  the 
Jesuits  penetrated,  the  aborigines  soon  adopted 
Christianity,  but  to  hold  the  Indians  to  Christianity 
the  Fathers  were  obliged  to  fix  them  to  the  soil. 
As  soon  as  a  tribe  was  converted,  a  rude  church 
building  was  erected,  and  a  Jesuit  installed,  who  re- 
mained to  teach  agriculture  and  the  arts  as  well  as 
ritual  and  morals.  His  moral  and  intellectual  su- 
periority made  him  perforce  an  absolute  ruler  in 
miniature.  Thus  that  strange  theocracy  came  into 
being,  which,  starting  on  the  Brazilian  coast,  spread 
over  most  of  central  South  America.  In  the  early 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  theocratic 
seemed  likely  to  become  the  dominant  form  of  gov- 
ernment south  of  the  Amazon  and  east  of  the  Andes. 

The  Jesuit  wanted  the  Indian  to  himself,  and 
fought  against  the  interference  or  enslavement  by 
the  lay  Portuguese.  The  colonists  wanted  the  In- 
dians to  work  on  their  plantations,  to  incorporate 
them  as  slaves,  or  in  some  analogous  capacity,  with 
the  white  man's  industrial  and  civil  organisation. 
The  home  government  stood  by  the  Jesuits,  but  the 
colonists  constantly  evaded  restrictions  and  steadily 
fought  the  priests.     The  encouragement  of  the  negro 


328  BRAZIL 

slave  trade  was  an  attempt  at  a  compromise — in- 
tended to  induce  the  colonists  to  leave  the  Indians 
alone  by  furnishing  another  supply  of  labour. 

Primarily,  at  least,  the  Jesuit  purpose  was  altru- 
istic, though  the  material  advantages  and  the  fas- 
cination of  exercising  authority  were  soon  potent 
motives.  The  Jesuits  gave  the  South  American 
Indian  the  greatest  measure  of  peace  and  justice  he 
ever  enjoyed,  but  they  reduced  him  to  blind  obe- 
dience and  made  him  a  tenant  and  a  servant. 
Though  virtually  a  slave,  he  was,  however,  little 
exposed  to  infection  from  the  vices  and  diseases  of 
civilisation;  he  was  not  put  at  tasks  too  hard  for 
him;  and  under  Jesuit  rule  he  prospered.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  this  system  had  prevailed  there  would 
have  been  little  white  immigration,  the  Indian  race 
would  have  remained  in  possession  of  the  country, 
and  real  civilisation  would  never  have  gained  a  foot- 
hold. 

Immediately  after  the  founding  of  Bahia,  Nobrega 
sent  members  of  the  Order  to  the  other  colonies. 
He  himself  visited  Pernambuco,  where  the  stout 
old  proprietor  met  him  with  effective  opposition. 
Duarte  did  not  welcome  a  clergy  responsible  solely 
to  a  foreign  corporation,  and  over  which  he  could 
have  no  control.  In  Bahia  and  the  south  the  Jesu- 
its, however,  prospered  amazingly.  In  Sao  Paulo 
they  laboured  hard,  spread  widely,  converted  a  large 
number  of  Indians,  and  perfected  their  system,  but 
it  was  there  they  came  most  sharply  in  conflict  with 
the  spirit  of  individualism,  and  there  they  suffered 
their  first  and  most  crushincr  overthrow. 


THE  JESUITS  329 

Thomas  de  Souza  laboured  diligently  during  the 
four  years  of  his  administration,  fortifying  posts, 
driving  away  contraband  traders,  dismissing  in- 
competent officials,  and  even  building  jails  and 
straightening  streets  where  the  local  authorities  had 
neglected  them.  He  visited  all  the  captaincies  south 
of  Bahia  and  entered  Rio  Bay,  then  the  principal 
rendezvous  for  the  French  privateers  and  traders. 
He  appreciated  its  strategic  and  commercial  import- 
ance, and  was  only  prevented  by  lack  of  means  from 
establishing  a  strong  post  there.  In  Sao  Paulo  he 
prohibited  the  flourishing  trade  which  had  grown 
with  the  Spaniards  in  Paraguay  and  Buenos  Aires. 
Duarte  da  Costa,  his  successor,  was  accompanied  by 
a  large  re-enforcement  of  Jesuits.  Among  them  was 
Anchieta,  one  of  the  most  notable  men  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Order,  whose  genius,  devotion,  and 
pertinacious  courage  laid  the  foundations  of  Jesuit 
power  so  deeply  in  South  America  that  its  effects 
remain  to  this  day.  .  This  remarkable  man  was  born 
in  Teneriffe,  the  son  of  a  banished  nobleman,  who 
had  married  a  native  of  the  island.  Educated  at 
home, from  his  infancy  he  showed  marvellous  talents. 
At  fourteen,  his  father,  not  daring  to  risk  his  son's 
life  in  Spain,  sent  him  to  the  Portuguese  University 
at  Coimbra.  His  career  was  so  brilliant,  the  reput- 
ation he  acquired  for  profound  and  ready  intelli- 
gence, his  eloquence,  and  his  pure  and  elevated 
ideals  so  remarkable,  that  he  attracted  the  attention 
of  Simon  Rodrigues,  John  HI.'s  great  Jesuit  min- 
ister, who,  like  all  the  leaders  of  the  Order,  was  on 
the  watch  for  talented  young  men.      The  ardent 


330  BRAZIL 

youth  was  easily  convinced  that  no  career  was  so 
glorious  as  that  of  a  missionary,  and  when  only 
twenty  years  old  he  solicited  and  obtained  permis- 
sion to  go  to  Brazil.  Nobrega,  the  Provincial, 
selected  him   to   go  to  Sao  Paulo  and  establish  a 


i<^'  i 


PADRE  JOSE   DE   ANCHIETA. 
[From  an  old  wood-cut.] 

school  to  train  neophytes  and  proselytes  into  evan- 
gelists. His  own  letter  to  Nobrega  best  tells  what 
a  life  he  found  and  what  sort  of  man  he  was: 

"  Here  we  are,  sometimes  more  than  twenty  of  us  to- 
gether in  a  little  hut  of  mud  and  wicker,  roofed  with 
straw,  fourteen  paces  long  and  ten  wide.  This  is  at  once 
the  school,  the  infirmary,  dormitory,  refectory,  kitchen, 
and  store-room.  Yet  we  covet  not  the  more  spacious 
dwellings  which  our  brethren  have  in  other  parts.  Our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  in  a  far  straiter  place  when  it  was 


THE  JESUITS  331 

His  pleasure  to  be  born  among  beasts  in  a  manger, 
and  in  a  still  straiter  when  He  deigned  to  die  upon  the 
cross." 

They  herded  together  to  keep  warm,  for  in  winter 
it  is  cold  on  the  Sao  Paulo  plateau.  They  had  no 
food  except  the  mandioc  flour,  fish,  and  game  which 
the  Indians  gave  them.  To  the  little  college  came 
Creoles  and  half-breeds  and  learned  Latin,  Portu- 
guese, Spanish,  and  Tupi.  Anchieta  was  indefatig- 
able. Within  a  year  he  had  acquired  a  complete 
mastery  of  the  Indian  tongue,  and  had  devised  a 
grammar  for  it.  He  wrote  his  own  text-books,  and 
employed  his  great  poetical  talents  in  composing 
hymns  and  verses  to  be  chanted  to  the  pupils,  re- 
counting the  stories  of  Holy  Scripture.  He  visited 
the  most  savage  tribes  in  person,  and  acquired  a 
marvellous  moral  supremacy  over  them.  When  the 
Tamoyos  attacked  the  Portuguese,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  southern  settlements  seemed  in- 
evitable, he  fearlessly  went  to  the  Indian  camps  and 
persuaded  the  chiefs  to  consent  to  a  truce  while  he 
remained  among  them  three  years  as  a  hostage  to 
guarantee  its  faithful  performance  by  his  country- 
men. The  savages  regarded  him  as  more  than  hu- 
man, and  tradition  tells  of  the  miracles  he  performed. 
It  is  related  that  during  these  three  years  of  solitary 
captivity  he  composed,  without  the  aid  of  pen  or 
paper,  his  Latin  "Hymn  to  the  Virgin,"  celebrated 
as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  ecclesiastical  poetry. 

He  and  his  companions  did  not  disdain  to  labour 
with  their  hands.     They  used  the  spade  and  trowel, 


332 


BRAZIL 


made  their  own  shoes,  taught  the  Indians  agricuU- 
ure,  introduced  new  plants  from  Europe,  practised 
medicine,  and  studied  the  botany,  topography,  and 
geology  of  the  country.  The  villages  of  converted 
Indians  under  their  government  and  protection 
rapidly  spread  over  the  Sao  Paulo  plains,  and  they 
were  refuges  for  Indians  flying  from  slavery  on  the 
plantations.  The  colonists  pursued  their  fugitive 
slaves,  and  soon  were  at  open  war  with  the  Jesuits. 
In  the  course  of  this  conflict  the  original  half-breed 
settlement  on  the  plateau  was  destroyed  and  the  lay 
Portuguese  came  near  being  wiped  out.  Peace  was 
temporarily  patched  up,  but  the  Paulistas  soon 
turned  the  tables  and  compelled  the  Jesuits  to  de- 
vote themselves  to  their  educational  institutions  in 
the  towns,  or  to  withdraw  farther  and  farther  into 
the  wilderness. 


3^  ^>Y.*?===-^,9^^L^/^.^'^'i'i^-^^' 


CHAPTER  VI 

FRENCH    OCCUPATION   OF   RIO 

DURING  Duarte's  administration  troubles  with 
the  Indians  broke  out  along  the  whole  coast. 
In  Bahia  itself  the  new  governor  had  disobeyed  the 
orders  of  the  home  government  to  protect  the  In- 
dians. He  joined  with  the  colonists  in  exploiting 
them.  A  formidable  Indian  conspiracy  was  formed 
and  the  settlements  on  both  sides  of  the  city  were 
simultaneously  attacked.  Many  farms  and  villages 
were  sacked,  but  soon  the  Indians  were  finally  and 
crushingly  defeated.  The  coast  towns  of  Sao  Paulo 
were  menaced  by  a  great  confederation  of  tribes 
who  used  war  canoes  and  had  learned  to  overcome 
their  terror  of  firearms.  At  Espirito  Santo  the 
Indian  slaves  rose  r//  masse,  killed  most  of  the  Port- 
uguese, and  destroyed  the  sugar  plantations. 

A  more  serious  danger  was  the  settlement  of  the 
French  at  Rio  de  Janeiro.  They  had  formed  friendly 
relations  with  the  Indians,  and  the  name  of  French- 
man was  sufficient  to  insure  good  treatment  from 
most  of  the  tribes,  while  that  of  Portuguese  was  a 
signal  for  its  bearer  to  be  killed  and  devoured.     This 

333 


334  BRAZIL 

was  the  epoch  of  the  religious  wars  in  France,  and 
the  traders  to  Brazil  came  mostly  from  Huguenot 
ports.  Admiral  Coligny  conceived  the  idea  of  es- 
tablishing a  Huguenot  settlement  in  South  Amer- 
ica, and  Rio  was  chosen  as  the  most  available  site. 
In  1555  a  considerable  expedition  was  sent  under 
the  command  of  Nicolas  Villegagnon,  a  celebrated 
adventurer,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  escort- 
ing Mary  Queen  of  Scots  from  France  to  Scot- 
land. He  fortified  the  island  in  Rio  harbour  that 
still  bears  his  name — a  barren  rock  which  commanded 
the  entrance  and  was  safe  from  attacks  by  land. 
The  French  kept  on  good  terms  with  the  neighbour- 
ing Indians,  and  remained  unmolested  by  the  Port- 
uguese for  four  years.  But  Villegagnon  was  not 
faithful  to  his  employers,  though  most  of  his  party 
were  Protestants,  and  Huguenot  leaders  had  fur- 
nished the  money  for  the  expedition.  He  quarrelled 
with  the  Huguenots  and  finally  gave  up  the  com- 
mand and  returned  to  France  in  the  Guise  interest, 
Coligny's  project  of  establishing  a  new  and  Pro- 
testant France  in  South  America  lost  its  very  good 
chance  of  success.  It  is  interesting  to  conjecture 
what  would  have  been  the  history  of  Brazil  if  Ville- 
gagnon had  stuck  to  the  Huguenot  side.  In  all 
probability  re-enforcements  would  have  been  sent, 
and  St.  Bartholomew's  Day — fourteen  years  later — 
might  have  been  followed  by  a  great  emigration  like 
that  which  went  to  New  England  during  the  Laud 
persecution.  Rio  and  perhaps  the  whole  of  South 
Brazil  would  have  become  a  French  possession  or  a 
French-speaking  state. 


FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  RIO  335 

Not  until  1558  was  a  strong  and  able  Portuguese 
governor  selected,  and  vigorous  measures  taken  to 
expel  the  French.  The  new  governor  was  Mem  da 
Sa,  a  nobleman  of  the  highest  birth,  a  soldier,  a 
scholar,  and  an  experienced  administrator.  His 
name  will  always  be  associated  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Portuguese  power  in  Brazil  on  a  footing 
firm  and  broad  enough  to  enable  it  to  withstand  the 
Dutch  attacks  and  the  lean  years  of  Spanish  domin- 
ation. 

Upon  his  arrival  he  took  measures  to  quiet  the 
Indian  slavery  question  by  reducing  the  import  du- 
ties on  black  slaves  and  by  aiding  each  planter  to 
acquire  as  many  negroes  as  he  needed  to  work  his 
plantation.  When  his  ships  and  armament  arrived 
he  proceeded  to  the  south.  He  found  that  the 
French,  though  weak  in  numbers,  could  count  on 
Indian  allies.  As  he  himself  writes  to  the  Court: 
"The  French  do  not  treat  the  natives  as  we  do. 
They  are  very  liberal  to  them,  observing  strict  just- 
ice, so  that  the  commander  is  feared  by  his  country- 
men and  beloved  by  the  Indians.  Measures  have 
been  taken  to  instruct  the  latter  in  the  use  of  arms, 
and  as  the  aborigines  are  very  numerous  the  French 
may  soon  make  themselves  very  strong."  He 
harassed  the  French  and  destroyed  their  fortifica- 
tions but  could  not  completely  dislodge  them,  and 
returned  to  Bahia  with  his  work  only  half  accom- 
plished. Porto  Seguro  and  Ilheos  were  attacked 
by  the  ferocious  Aymores  and  with  difficulty  saved 
from  total  destruction.  In  the  South  another  great 
Tamoyo  confederation  had  been  formed  with  the 


336  BRAZIL 

deliberate  purpose  of  rootini;'  the  Paulistas  out  of 
the  country  and  putting  a  stop  once  for  all  to  their 
slave-hunting.  When  all  seemed  lost,  Anchieta  in- 
tervened, and  succeeded  in  fixing  up  a  peace.  The 
Tamoyos  were  cajoled  into  becoming  allies  of  the 
Portuguese  in  a  final  attempt  to  expel  the  French 
from  Rio.  Mem  da  Sa's  nephew  appeared  with  a 
considerable  fleet,  and  after  a  desultory  campaign  of 
a  year  the  French  were  obliged  to  retire.  France 
did  nothing  to  prevent  or  recover  this  inestimable 
loss,  and  Mem  da  Sa  immediately  laid  out  and  fort- 
ified a  city  on  a  site  which  to-day  is  the  business 
centre  of  the  capital  of  Brazil.  From  the  time  of 
its  founding  Rio  was  the  most  important  place  in 
southern  Brazil  and  the  key  to  the  whole  region, 
but  its  great  prosperity  dates  from  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  later,  when  gold  was  discovered  in  Minas 
Geraes. 

Mem  da  Sa  continued  to  rule  Brazil  until  his  death 
in  1572.  The  work  of  centralisation  went  on  apace, 
fiscal  and  administrative  officers  were  multiplied, 
and  taxes  and  restrictions  imposed  at  will.  The 
Lisbon  government  laid  the  foundations  of  that  re- 
strictive system  which  finally  confined  Brazil  to 
communication  with  the  mother  country.  Never- 
theless most  of  the  settlements  grew  rapidly.  Sugar- 
planting,  cattle-raising,  and  general  agriculture- 
flourished.  The  Indians  were  expelled  or  reduced 
to  impotence  within  striking  distance  of  the  centres 
of  population. 

At  Mem  da  Sa's  death  the  civilised  population 
numbered  about  sixty  thousand,  of  whom  twenty 


338  BRAZIL 

thousand  were  white.  The  provinces  of  Pernam- 
buco  and  Bahia  had  each  twenty-five  thousand  in- 
habitants. Rio  had  some  two  thousand  and  Sao 
Paulo  perhaps  five,  the  remainder  being  divided  be- 
tween the  smaller  settlements- — Parahyba,  Rio  Real, 
Ilheos,  Porto  Seguro,  and  Espirito  Santo.  Except 
in  Sao  Paulo  most  of  the  inhabitants  were  engaged 
in  sugar-raising.  The  hundred  and  twenty  planta- 
tions produced  annually  forty-five  thousand  tons  of 
sugar,  while  Portuguese  goods  to  the  value  of  a  mil- 
lion dollars  a  year  were  imported. 

A  sugar  fazenda,  or  plantation,  constituted  a 
little  independent  village,  where  the  owner  lived  sur- 
rounded by  his  slaves  in  their  cabins,  his  shops  and 
stables,  mills  and  mandioc  fields.  The  grantees  had 
paid  no  purchase  price  for  the  land,  and  held  it  on 
condition  of  paying  a  tenth  of  the  product  and  a 
tenth  of  that  tenth,  a  tax  which  survives  to  the 
present  time,  only  it  is  now  called  an  export  duty  of 
eleven  per  cent.  Land  was  not  otherwise  taxed,  and 
to  this  day  direct  taxes  on  farm  property  are  almost 
unknown,  though  imposts  of  every  other  conceiv- 
able kind  have  been  multiplied.  The  tracts  granted 
were  large;  the  owner  could  hold  them  unused  with- 
out expense;  the  most  powerful  incentive  to  sale 
and  division  of  land  did  not,  therefore,  exist.  Brazil 
became  and  remains  a  country  of  large  rural  pro- 
prietorship. Landowners  are  reluctant  to  sell  or 
divide  their  estates,  taxes  on  transfers  are  excessive, 
and  land  is  not  freely  bought  and  sold.  Conse- 
quently the  rural  population  is  widely  scattered, 
grants  extend  far  beyond  the  limits  of  actual  settle- 


FRENCH  OCCUPA  TION   OF  RIO  339 

ment,  there  are  few  small  farmers  and  very  little 
careful  culture.  Brazil  is  a  country  of  staple  crops 
and  non-div^ersified  agriculture.  A  fall  in  sugar  or 
coffee  produces  a  disproportionate  disturbance  in 
financial  conditions,  and  land  not  suitable  to  the 
staple  crop  of  a  region  is  left  to  lie  idle.  Immigra- 
tion has  been  retarded  because  land  has  been  hard 
to  obtain  except  .by  special  government  con- 
cession, and  because  private  owners  do  not  care 
to  sell  their  land  to  settlers.  Except  in  re- 
stricted cases,  the  rural  immigration  —  negro  and 
South  European  —  has  been  for  the  purpose  of 
furnishing  labour  for  the  large  proprietors,  and  not 
to  form  a  landowning  and  permanently  established 
population. 

The  Jesuit  travellers  describe  the  Brazilian  people 
in  1584  as  pleasure-loving  and  extravagant.  In  the 
sugar  provinces  fortunes  were  very  unequal.  In 
Pernambuco  alone  more  than  a  hundred  planters 
had  incomes  of  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Their 
capital,  Olinda — now  the  northern  suburb  of  the 
city  of  Pernambuco — was  the  largest  town  in  Brazil 
and  the  one  where  there  was  most  luxurious  living 
and  the  most  polite  society.  In  general  the  people 
were  spendthrifts,  and  notwithstanding  large  in- 
comes were  heavily  in  debt.  Great  sums  were 
spent  on  fetes,  religious  processions,  fairs,  and  din- 
ners. The  simple  Jesuit  Fathers  were  shocked  to  see 
such  velvets  and  silks,  such  luxurious  beds  of  crim- 
son damask,  such  extravagance  in  the  trappings  of 
the  saddle-horses.  Carriages  were  unknown,  and 
instead  litters  and  sedan  chairs  were  used,  and  these 


340 


BRAZIL 


remained  in  common  use  in  Baliia  until  very  recent 
times. 

From  Pernambuco  and  Bahia  coinmunication  with 
the  mother  country  was  constant  and  easy.  Sao 
Paulo,  however,  differed  radically  from  the  sugar 
districts.  Wheat,  barley,  and  European  fruits  grew 
on  the  Sao  Paulo  plateau,  but  there  was  little  export 


to  Portugal,  and  imported  clothes  were  scarce  and 
dear.  The  Paulistas  were  constantly  on  horseback 
and  wore  the  old  Portuguese  costume  of  cloak  and 
close-fitting  doublet  long  after  it  had  been  disused 
at  home. 

Bahia    and    Pernambuco    were    fairly    well    built 
towns,  though  unfortunately  in  the  Portuguese  style 


FRENCH  OCCUPA  TION  OF  RIO 


341 


of  architecture,  whose  solid  walls,  few  windows,  and 
contiguous  houses  make  it  ill  adapted  to  a  tropical 
climate.  In  spite  of  its  unsuitability  it  was  uni- 
versally adopted,  and  even  yet  largely  prevails  in 
Brazil. 


CHAPTER  VII 

EXPANSION 

IN  1 58 1  Philip  II.  of  Spain  succeeded  in  establish- 
ing himself  on  the  throne  of  Portugal  as  the 
successor  of  the  rash  Sebastian,  dead  fighting  the 
Moors  at  Alcacer-Kebir.  The  decadent  and  de- 
moralised Portuguese  nation  made  hardly  the  sem- 
blance of  a  struggle  for  its  independence.  The  very 
ease  with  which  Philip  obtained  the  kingdom  left 
him  no  pretext  for  depriving  it  of  administrative  in- 
dependence. Native  Portuguese  continued  to  hold 
office  in  the  colonies  and  to  enjoy  a  monopoly  of 
Brazilian  commerce.  Internally,  therefore,  the 
change  did  not  much  affect  Brazil.  But  in  foreign 
relations  the  effect  was  profound.  Brazil  became  a 
part  of  a  well-nigh  universal  monarchy,  and  one  of 
the  battle-fields  of  the  struggle  which  had  begun  be- 
tween Spain  and  the  Protestant  powers. 

All  South  America  was  now  under  the  same 
monarch;  boundary  questions  between  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  America  apparently  ceased  to  have  any 
importance.  The  enormous  extension  of  Brazil  to- 
ward the  interior  over  territory  formerly  conceded 

342 


EXPANSION  343 

to  be  Spanish  occurred  during  the  sixty  years  of 
Spanish  domination.  The  Spanish  monarch  did 
not  have  time  to  spend  on  Brazilian  matters,  and 
the  colonists  were  less  interfered  with  from  Lisbon 
and  Madrid  than  might  have  been  expected.  Por- 
tuguese historians  have  much  exaggerated  the  evil 
effects  of  the  English,  Dutch,  and  French  half 
filibustering,  half-trading  descents  on  the  coast, 
which  occurred  during  this  period.  The  pillage  of 
a  few  towns  was  more  than  compensated  by  the 
commerce  that  sprang  up;  much  Brazilian  sugar 
escaped  paying  the  heavy  export  duties;  settlement 
extended  rapidly  over  new  territory,  and  the  im- 
portation of  negroes  continued. 

As  early  as  1575  a  settlement  had  been  made  in 
Sergipe,  but  the  great  expansion  over  northern  Brazil 
began  under  the  rule  of  Philip's  first  governor- 
general.  In  1583  he  sent  troops  to  take  possession 
of  the  important  port  of  Parahyba,  where  some 
French  traders  had  obtained  a  foothold  that  pre- 
vented the  inhabitants  of  Peinambuco  from  spreading 
north  beyond  Itamarica.  The  Spanish  mercenaries 
were  at  first  successful,  but  they  could  not  stifle  the 
serious  Indian  war  which  broke  out.  The  Pernam- 
bucanos  had  better  success,  because  they  knew  how 
to  take  advantage  of  the  dissensions  among  the 
savages  Fortifying  a  town  at  Parahyba,  they  per- 
manently established  their  sugar  plantations  in  its 
neighbourhood,  and  then  these  indefatigable  and 
land-hungry  Creoles  pushed  on  farther  to  the  north. 
In  1597  Jeronymo  de  Albuquerque,  the  greatest  of 
Brazilian  colonial  generals,   attacked  and  defeated 


344  BRAZIL 

the  powerful  Pitagoares  Indians,  and  established  the 
colony  of  Natal,  the  nucleus  of  the  present  state  ot 
Rio  Grande  do  Norte.  This  brought  the  Pernam- 
bucanos  to  Cape  St.  Roque.  To  the  south  they 
had  spread  as  far  as  the  San  Francisco  River,  there 
meeting  the  Bahianos  who,  by  1589,  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  present  state  of  Sergipe. 

North  of  St.  Roque  the  Portuguese  so  far  had 
done  nothing  except  make  some  desultory  voyages 
of  observation,  though  they  claimed  the  coast  to 
and  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon.  The  donat- 
ories of  the  captaincies  in  that  region  had  not  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  any  settlements.  In  1541, 
Orellana,  one  of  those  recklessly  heroic  Spaniards 
who  had  helped  Pizarro  conquer  the  empire  of  the 
Incas,  was  a  member  of  an  expedition  which  crossed 
the  Andes  near  Quito  and  descended  into  the  for- 
ested plains,  looking  for  another  Peru — the  fabled 
El  Dorado.  They  finally  found  themselves  on  a 
great  river  flowing  to  the  east,  and,  since  their  pro- 
visions were  exhausted,  boats  were  built  and  Orel- 
lana was  sent  on  ahead  to  try  to  find  supplies.  He 
could  not  find  enough  to  feed  the  main  body  and 
decided  to  float  on  down  the  river,  well  knowing  it 
must  finally  bring  him  to  the  ocean.  After  a  voyage 
of  more  than  three  thousand  miles  he  came  to  the 
-great  estuary  of  the  Amazon  and  thence  made  his 
.way  to  Spain.  No  important  results  followed  this 
■wonderful  discovery.  Orellana  himself  shortly  re- 
turned to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  but  he  could  not 
find  his  way  up  the  labyrinth  of  waters. 
.     To  reach  the  plains  from  the^Pacific  or  Caribbean 


EXPANSWN  345 

settlements  is  nearly  impracticable,  and  the  Amazon 
valley  remained  unsettled.  Meanwhile  the  seed 
planted  by  old  Duarte  Coelho  germinated  and  grew 
into  a  vigorous  tree  whose  branches  were  spreading 
out  over  all  North  Brazil.  The  seventeenth  century 
had  hardly  begun  when  the  hardy  Pernambucanos 
invaded  the  country  h'ing  north  and  west  of  St. 
Roque,  hunting  Indian  slaves,  and  good  places  for 
cattle-  and  sugar-raising.  In  1603  Pero  Coelho,  an 
adventurous  Brazilian  then  living  at  Parahyba,  made 
a  settlement  far  to  the  north-west  of  Natal,  on  the 
coast  of  Ceara,  and  penetrated  eight  hundred  miles 
from  Pernambuco.  Unreasonable  aggressions  against 
the  Indians  brought  on  temporary  reverses,  but  the 
Pernambucanos  persevered,  and  the  Jesuits  also  es- 
tablished missions.  By  1610  the  region  was  pretty 
well  under  white  control,  the  Indians  being  incorpor- 
ated to  a  greater  extent  than  was  usual  in  the  settle- 
ments farther  south. 

The  next  forward  movement  was  precipitated  by 
a  formidable  French  attempt  to  colonise  Maranhao. 
Daniel  de  la  Rivardiere,  a  Huguenot  nobleman,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  carrying  out  on  the  north  coast 
Coligny's  plan  of  a  French  Protestant  colony.  In 
161 2  he  landed  on  the  island  of  Maranhao  with  a 
large  and  well-appointed  expedition. 

Jeronymo  de  Albuquerque  fortunately  happened 
to  be  on  the  north  coast  when  news  came  of  this 
alarming  intrusion.  Sending  his  ships  on  to  ascer- 
tain the  truth  of  the  report,  he  hastened  overland 
to  Pernambuco  to  get  a  force  together.  With  three 
hundred  whites  and  two  hundred  Indians  he  started 


346  BRAZIL  ( 

to  expel  the  French,  An  assault  on  a  fort  defended 
with  artillery  was  out  of  the  question,  so  in  his  turn 
he  fortified  himself,  cut  off  the  French  from  access 
to  the  sea,  and  ambushed  their  foraging  expeditions. 
In  such  a  game,  his  men,  inured  to  the  climate,  had 
an  immense  advantage.  Forced  to  assault  Albu- 
querque's position,  the  French  were  repulsed.  They 
begged  for  a  truce,  and  went  home  at  the  end  of  a 
year,  Albuquerque  took  possession  of  the  French 
town,  and  in  1616  secured  all  the  rest  of  the  northern 
coast  to  Portugal  by  founding  Para,  just  to  the 
south  of  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon.  Several  settle- 
ments were  made  along  the  coast  east  of  Pard  and 
also  west  in  the  estuary  itself.  The  Indians  proved 
docile  and  were  easily  incorporated  to  so  great  an 
extent  that  the  Indian  element  is  more  predominant 
in  Para  than  in  any  other  state  on  the  Brazilian 
littoral. 

On  the  island  and  around  the  bay  of  Maranhao  a 
prosperous  colony  grew  up.  Certain  enterprising 
business  men  made  a  contract  with  the  government 
and  started  a  regular  propaganda  for  immigrants,  and 
induced  a  large  number  to  come  from  the  Azores. 
The  state  thus  founded  was  one  of  the  most  pro- 
sperous in  Brazil,  and  was  especially  celebrated  for 
the  politeness  and  cultivation  of  its  inhabitants. 
Some  of  the  greatest  names  in  Portuguese  literature 
are  those  of  Maranhenses.  It  is  commonly  said  that 
the  best  Portuguese  is  spoken  in  Maranhao,  and 
not  in  Lisbon,  Rio,  or  Porto — just  as  the  English 
of  Dublin,  Aberdeen,  or  Boston  is  considered  better 
than  that  of  London  or  New  York,  and  the  Spanish 


EXPANSION  347 

of  Lima  and  Bogota  better  than  that  of  Madrid, 
Barcelona,  or  Buenos  Aires. 

Meanwhile  population  and  wealth  had  been  in- 
creasing satisfactorily  in  the  older  provinces  south 
of  Cape  St.  Roque.  By  1626  Pernambuco  and 
Bahia  had  grown  to  be  towns  of  something  like  ten 
thousand  inhabitants,  and  the  people  of  the  respect- 
ive provinces  numbered  about  a  hundred  thou- 
sand. Ilheos,  Porto  Seguro,  and  Espirito  Santo  had 
made  no  progress,  but  Rio  had  become  a  city  of  six 
thousand,  while  the  shores  of  her  bay  and  the  adja- 
cent coast  were  now  fairly  settled.  Rio  and  Santos 
really  performed  the  function  of  ports  for  the  foreign 
commerce  of  Paraguay  and  the  Argentine  because 
the  Spanish  laws  did  not  permit  these  colonies  to 
have  ports  of  their  own.  Campos  was  now  settled 
and  its  sugar  industry  was  prospering.  On  the  Sao 
Paulo  plains  the  Paulistas  had  spread  to  the  north- 
east to  the  headwaters  of  the  Parahyba  and  borders 
of  the  present  state  of  Rio,  and  north-west  down 
the  navigable  Tiete,  along  which  they  found  an  easy 
track  for  their  expeditions  in  search  of  slaves.  The 
Jesuits  had  long  since  been  unable  to  control  or 
check  the  Paulistas,  and  had  abandoned  the  missions 
near  the  coast.  In  the  remote  interior,  along  the 
Parana  and  its  great  tributaries,  the  defeated  priests 
thought  that  they  would  be  safe,  and  about  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  they  entered  that  region 
by  way  of  Paraguay.  The  Paulistas  recked  little  of 
the  government,  especially  now  that  the  king  was 
Spanish,  and,  advancing  the  claim  that  Spanish 
Jesuits    had     established    missions    on    Portuguese 


348  BRAZIL 

territory,  they  proceeded  to  wipe  out  the  new- 
missions. 

It  seems  incredible  that  their  little  bands  could 
have  penetrated  such  distances  and  accomplished 
such  results,  but  it  is  on  record  that  they  tracked 
nearly  to  the  Andes,  and  practically  exterminated, 
the  aboriginal  population  of  half  Brazil.  The  Jesu- 
its tell  us  that  between  1614  and  1639  four  hundred 
Paulistas  with  two  thousand  Indian  allies  captured 
and  killed  three  hundred  thousand  natives.  In  1632 
they  utterly  destroyed  the  great  Jesuit  settlements 
on  the  Upper  Parana,  though  this  involved  an  ex- 
pedition of  fifteen  hundred  miles,  much  of  which 
is  to  this  day  rarely  penetrable.  One  of  their  ex- 
peditions was  like  an  ambulating  village  —  women, 
children,  and  domestic  animals  accompanying  it. 
They  sometimes  were  obliged  to  stop,  sow  a  crop, 
and  wait  for  it  to  mature  before  they  could  proceed. 
For  the  time  being,  these  predatory  Paulistas  almost 
reverted  to  the  nomadic  stage. 

Naturally,  no  complete  record  of  these  expeditions 
survives.  Their  members  were  not  literate  men,  and 
it  is  only  when  they  fought  the  Jesuits,  or  when 
they  discovered  minerals,  that  a  record  of  their 
routes  has  been  preserved.  We  know  that  before 
1632  they  had  traversed  all  of  southern  Brazil,  and 
Paraguay,  and  even  eastern  Argentina  and  Uru- 
guay. Incursions  to  the  north  and  west  followed 
shortly.  There  is  an  authentic  record  of  an  ex- 
pedition reaching  Goyaz  as  early  as  1647,  and  it  is 
probable  that  by  that  time  they  had  penetrated  the 
central  plateau  which  stretches  across  to  the  Andes, 


EXPANSION 


349 


had  seen  the  headwaters  of  the  southern  tributaries 
of  the  Amazon,  and  had  followed  the  eastern  mount- 
ain chain  almost  to  the  northern  ocean.  The  Paul- 
istas  secured  to  their  country  and  their  race  more 
than  a  million  square  miles  of  fertile  and  salubrious 
territory. 


CHAPTER   VIII 


THE   DUTCH   CONQUEST 


BY  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  Holland  was 
practically  independent,  and  the  "Beggars  of 
the  Sea"  were  carrying  her  arms  and  trade  all  over 
the  world.  Numerous  private  companies  of  Dutch 
merchants  made  war  against  Spain  on  their  own  ac- 
count, and  great  fortunes  were  made  in  the  capture 
of  Spanish  fleets  and  in  trade  with  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese colonies.  The  Dutch  East  India  Company 
within  a  few  years  possessed  itself  of  the  better  part 
of  the  Portuguese  empire  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and 
the  West  India  Company  was  organised  to  do  the 
same  in  South  America.  Incorporated  in  162 1,  it  in- 
cluded various  smaller  companies  already  engaged  in 
trade  and  privateering,  and  was  an  immense  corpora- 
tion which  finally  owned  more  than  eight  hundred 
ships,  and  sent  to  Brazil  alone  more  than  seventy 
thousand  troops.  Although  protected,  subsidised, 
and  conceded  a  monopoly  by  the  Dutch  govern- 
ment, it  always  remained  essentially  a  company  for 
private  profit. 

The  Company's  primary  object  was  to  capture  the 
350 


THE   DUTCH  CONQUEST  35  I 

Spanish  treasure  fleets ;  its  secondary  object  was  to 
conquer  the  possessions  of  Spain  and  Portugal  in 
South  America.  Brazil  furnished  the  best  base  for 
the  operations  that  were  intended  to  make  the 
South  Atlantic  a  Dutch  lake  ;  Bahia  and  Pernambuco 
were  near  Europe,  had  good  harbours,  lay  on  the 
direct  route  to  the  Plate  and  the  Pacific,  and  from 
them  Africa  could  be  conveniently  attacked.  The 
sugar  trade  was  a  large  thing  in  itself  and  the  daring 
Dutch  traders  believed  that  the  Portuguese  colonists 
might  welcome  a  deliverance  from  Spanish  domina- 
tion. Spain's  power  was  a  rotten  shell,  and  impulses 
lying  deep  in  the  national  spirit  pushed  the  Dutch 
on  to  aggression.  The  peoples  of  Western  Europe 
had  finally  felt  all  the  stimulating  influences  of  the 
Renaissance,  of  the  Lutheran  and  Jesuit  Reforma- 
tions, and  of  the  Era  of  Discovery.  It  was  the 
epoch  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  of  the  League  of 
Avignon,  and  of  that  confused  fighting  caused  by 
the  more  vigorous  peoples  grasping  for  a  share  of 
the  spoils  of  the  New  World. 

Li  1623  news  came  of  the  eciuipping  by  the  West 
Lidia  Company  of  an  expedition  whose  destination 
was  manifestly  to  be  Bahia.  The  Spanish  govern- 
ment took  no  measures  for  defence.  The  local 
authorities  half-heartedly  began  to  fortify  the  city, 
but  there  were  no  troops  except  militia  to  man  the 
works,  and  when  the  Dutch  fleet  hove  in  sight  a 
panic  ensued.  The  governor  was  captured,  but 
many  of  the  inhabitants  fled  into  the  back  country, 
and  a  guerrilla  warfare  was  kept  up  which  shut  up 
the  Dutch  inside  the  fortifications.     They  made  use 


352  BRAZIL 

of  their  time  in  improving  the  defences,  and  soon 
made  Bahia  the  best  fortress  in  South  America. 

The  news  of  the  capture  created  consternation  in 
Lisbon.  Great  exertions  were  made  by  the  Portu- 
guese merchants,  as  well  as  by  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment, and  the  most  formidable  armament  which  up 
to  that  time  had  crossed  the  equator  was  prepared. 
It  was  composed  of  fifty-two  ships  and  of  twelve 
thousand  men — the  latter  being  mercenaries  gath- 
ered from  every  country  in  Europe.  The  Dutch 
commander  had  not  yet  been  re-enforced  and  made 
little  resistance  when  such  an  overwhelming  force 
arrived  in  Bahia  harbour.  He  surrendered  with  the 
honours  of  war  and  the  Spanish  fleet  retired.  In  a 
few  weeks  another  Dutch  fleet  appeared,  bringing 
provisions  and  re-enforcements.  It  was  too  late, 
however,  and  the  Dutch  did  not  venture  to  attack 
an  enemy  whom  they  themselves  had  furnished  with 
such  excellent  re-enforcements.  The  Dutch,  driven 
from  the  land,  remained  undisputed  masters  of  the 
sea,  and  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  could  no  longer 
trade  except  in  convoys.  In  1627  the  celebrated 
Piet  Heyn — the  Dutch  Sir  Francis  Drake — sailed 
boldly  into  Bahia  harbour,  and  despising  the  fire  of 
the  forty  guns  of  the  forts,  captured  twenty-six  ships 
within  pistol-shot  of  the  shore  cannon.  He  ran  his 
own  ship  right  in  between  the  two  best  Portuguese 
men-of-war,  the  forts  did  not  dare  fire  for  fear  of 
wounding  their  own  men,  the  Portuguese  flagship 
was  sunk,  and  the  rest  surrendered  in  terror. 
Among  the  spoils  were  three  thousand  hogsheads 
of  sugar,  which  Piet  Heyn  sent  home  at  his  leisure. 


THE  DUTCH  CONQUEST 


353 


while  he  ravaged  the  shores  of  the  bay.  The  fol- 
lowing year  he  fell  in  with  the  Mexican  treasure  fleet 
and  captured  it  bodily.  This  was  the  greatest  capt- 
ure ever  made  at  sea.  The  West  India  Company 
declared  a  dividend  of  fifty  per  cent,  after  paying 
the  expenses  of  the  unsuccessful  Bahia  expedition, 
and  resumed  its  plans  of  conquest  with  more  vigour 
than  ever. 


L    -•.>i'*4» 


ULIJ    i-C'Ki     Ai     tiAillA. 


After  careful  consideration  Pernambuco  was  se- 
lected as  a  more  vulnerable  point  of  attack  than  Ba- 
hia. The  fortifications  were  feeble,  and  there  were 
numerous  Jewish  merchants  in  the  city  whose 
friendship  could  be  counted  on.  Once  more  the 
Spanish  government  did  nothing  to  avert  the 
threatened  blow,  and  in  February,  1630,  a  Dutch 
fleet  of  fifty  sail  with  seven  thousand  men  arrived  in 
front  of  Pernambuco.  Three  thousand  men  were 
landed  to  the  north  of  the  town  and  easily  defeated 
the  militia  which  tried  to  prevent  their  taking  the 
place  from  the  rear.     The   inhabitants   fled  to  the 

VOL.  I. — 23. 


354  BRAZIL 

interior,  and  after  a  creditable  resistance  the  forts  fell. 
The  property  captured  was  estimated  at  near  ten 
million  dollars.  In  the  meantime,  Albuquerque,  the 
Brazilian  commander,  had  retired  to  a  defensible 
ranch  commanding  the  road  between  Recife  and 
Olinda,  and  whence  communication  could  be  kept  up 
with  the  sea  by  way  of  Cape  St.  Augustine.  This 
ranch  is  celebrated  in  Brazilian  tradition  as  the  "  Ar- 
raialde  Bom  Jesus."  The  Brazilians  rallied  and  from 
this  vantage-ground  began  to  harass  the  Dutch.  The 
promises  of  commercial,  religious,  and  political  tol- 
erance had  produced  little  effect  on  the  more  aident 
spirits.  The  Indians  remained  faithful  to  the  Portu- 
guese, and  with  the  negroes  did  good  service  in  the 
guerrilla  warfare.  For  the  first  two  years  the  Dutch 
could  accomplish  little  except  to  improve  the  fort- 
ifications around  the  town,  and  the  Brazilians  ac- 
quired a  confidence  in  their  own  ability  to  make  head 
against  regular  troops  which  later  stood  them  in 
good  stead. 

In  163 1  a  fleet  of  twenty  ships  appeared  from 
Spain,  but  the  Dutch  Admiral  sailed  boldly  out  and 
gave  them  battle.  The  net  results  to  the  Spaniards 
were  the  landing  of  only  a  thousand  men,  who,  after 
some  difficulty,  joined  the  militia  at  Bom  Jesus. 
But  the  seeds  of  discontent  were  germinating  among 
the  Brazilians.  On  closer  contact  the  heretics 
proved  to  be  human.  The  planters  wanted  peace 
and  an  opportunity  to  sell  their  sugar.  The  Indians, 
negroes,  and  other  adventurous  spirits  composing 
the  guerrilla  bands  robbed  both  friend  and  foe. 
The  soldiers  were  tired  of  serving  without  pay.     A 


THE  DUTCH  CONQUEST  355 

half-breed  named  Calabar,  a  man  of  remarkable 
bravery,  cunning,  and  skill  in  woodcraft,  deserted 
to  the  Dutch  and  gave  them  valuable  assistance. 
Re-enforcements  came  from  Holland,  and  under 
Calabar's  guidance  the  Dutch  learned  the  value  of 
ambuscading  and  made  sudden  expeditions  which 
took  the  important  settlements  by  surprise. 

In  1633  two  special  representatives  of  the  Com- 
pany came  with  instructions  to  prosecute  the  war 
vigorously  and  to  endeavour  to  conciliate  the  Brazil- 
ians. The  latters'  resistance  weakened;  many  of 
Albuquerque's  volunteers  deserted ;  the  Dutch  ex- 
peditions up  and  down  the  coast  were  successful. 
The  island  of  Itamarica,  Rio  Grande  do  Norte, 
Parahyba,  and  the  settlements  in  Alagoas  were  suc- 
cessively reduced.  Resistance  was  soon  confined  to 
the  country  just  back  of  Pernambuco  itself,  and  in 
1635  the  last  posts  which  held  out — Bom  Jesus  and 
St.  Augustine — surrendered.  The  whole  coast  from 
the  San  Francisco  River  north  to  Cape  St.  Roque 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch.  There  was  nothing 
for  it  but  submission  or  emigration.  Many  laid  down 
their  arms,  but  Albuquerque  and  his  faithful  lieuten- 
ants, the  negro  Dias  and  the  Indian  Camarrao,  reluc- 
tantly took  their  way  toward  Bahia,  the  only  place 
of  refuge.  The  Brazilian  historians  claim  that  ten 
thousand  Pernambucanos,  men,  women,  and  child- 
ren, accompanied  Albuquerque,  preferring  to  leave 
their  homes,  property,  and  friends  rather  than  ac- 
cept the  foreign  and  heretic  yoke.  A  sweet  bit  of 
revenge  awaited  them  on  their  journey.  Encoun- 
tering and  overpowering  a  small  Dutch  garrison  at 


356  BRAZIL 

Porto  Calvo,  they  took  its  members  prisoners,  and 
among  them  found  the  traitor,  Calabar.  Him  they 
hanged,  while  the  Dutchmen  were  let  go  unharmed. 

When  Albuquerque  reached  the  San  Francisco  he 
was  replaced  by  a  Spaniard,  Rojas,  who  had  brought 
re  -  enforcements  of  seventeen  hundred  Spanish 
troops.  The  new  commander  gave  battle  to  the 
Hollanders,  but  in  the  first  action  was  utterly  de- 
feated and  lost  his  own  life.  For  the  next  two  years 
Pernambuco  was  ravaged  by  the  most  frightful  burn- 
ings and  massacres.  The  Spanish  mercenaries  and 
the  bands  of  negroes  and  Indians  scoured  the  in- 
terior, and  the  Dutch  retaliated  with  the  same 
methods.  The  prosperous  colony  was  fast  being 
depopulated  and  its  industries  ruined.  It  became 
manifest  that  a  policy  at  once  vigorous  and  concilia- 
tory was  necessary,  and  the  Company  determined  to 
send  out  a  governor-general  with  vice-regal  powers. 

The  merchants  of  the  Directory  chose  Count  John 
Maurice,  of  Nassau-Siegen,  a  scion  of  the  reigning 
house,  and  a  descendant  of  William  the  Silent.  A 
more  fortunate  selection  could  not  have  been  made. 
Though  only  thirty-two  years  old,  Count  Maurice 
had  already  proved  himself  a  brave  and  skilful 
soldier;  he  was  a  man  of  culture,  a  thorough  son  of 
the  Renaissance,  a  lover  of  the  arts,  and,  like  most 
of  his  house,  religiously  tolerant  and  liberal  to  an 
extent  extraordinary  for  that  bitter  age.  He  was 
one  of  those  few  spirits,  in  advance  of  their  time,  to 
whom  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Jew  and  Gentile 
were  the  same — to  whose  instincts  religious  and 
commercial  intolerance  was  repugnant. 


THE  DUTCH  CONQUEST  357 

He  arrived  in  1637,  and  his  keen  eye  at  once  saw 
that  the  two  obstacles  to  pacification  were  the  mili- 
tary raids  which  the  new  Spanish  commander,  Bag- 
nuoli,  was  directing  from  his  position  near  the  San 
Francisco;  and  the  fear  of  the  Pernambuco  sugar 
planters  that  Dutch  dominion  meant  their  forcible 
conversion  to  Calvinism.  The  Dutch  troops  were 
now  well  equipped  and  seasoned  for  warfare  in  the 
tropical  woods,  and  their  officers  had  learned  how 
to  exercise  their  trade  under  these  difficult  circum- 
stances with  all  the  coolness,  shrewdness,  and  steadi- 
ness of  their  race.  Commanded  by  Maurice  they 
easily  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  upon  the  motley 
crew  Bagnuoli  had  been  able  to  gather.  The  whole 
country  north  of  the  San  Francisco  fell  into  Mau- 
rice's hands,  and  he  crossed  that  river  and  destroyed 
the  Brazilian  base  of  supplies  in  Sergipe.  The  next 
year  he  vvas  ordered  by  the  Directory  to  attack  Bahia 
with  insufficient  forces,  and  was  compelled  to  retire 
after  a  forty-days  siege.  Two  years  later,  however, 
his  fleet  defeated  and  nearly  destroyed  the  largest 
naval  force  Spain  had  sent  out  since  the  Invincible 
Armada.  Of  the  six  thousand  soldiers  on  board  who 
had  been  expected  to  drive  him  from  Brazil,  only 
one  thousand  were  landed,  away  north  of  Cape  St. 
Roque,  whence  they  barely  managed  to  reach  Bahia 
after  a  march  of  over  a  thousand  miles  tnrough  the 
wilderness,  suffering  the  most  frightful  hardships. 
Maurice  followed  up  this  victory  by  occupying 
Sergipe  (1640)  and  Maranhao  (1641).  Ceara  had 
fallen  into  his  hands  in  1637.  The  whole  of  Brazil 
from  the  3rd  to  the  12th  degree  of  latitude,  a  solid 


358  BRAZIL 

body  of  territory  containini;  more  than  two-thirds 
of  the  population  and  developed  resources,  was  ap- 
parently irretrievably  lost  to  the  Portuguese.  They 
only  retained  Bahia  and  the  isolated  settlements  in 
Para  and  the  southern  provinces. 

In  internal  administration  Maurice  was  equally 
vigorous.  He  suppressed  the  exactions  of  Dutch 
soldiers  and  functionaries,  and  established  law,  or- 
der, and  justice.  Agriculture,  industry,  and  com- 
merce flourished  as  never  before.  He  found  Recife 
a  miserable  port  village  and  left  it  a  city  of  two 
thousand' houses.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  made 
any  especial  exertions  to  secure  Dutch  immigration. 
The  Brazilians  were  not  displaced  as  landed  pro- 
prietors, and  most  of  the  plantations  confiscated 
from  the  persistently  rebellious  were  resold  to  Brazil- 
ians who  accepted  the  Dutch  rule.  He  permitted 
to  Romanists  and  Jews  the  free  and  public  exercise 
of  their  faith.  Many  Jews  came  to  Pernambuco, 
and  with  their  characteristic  capacity  soon  became 
prominent  and  useful  in  the  commercial  life  of  the 
colony.  The  courts  were  so  organised  as  to  secure 
representation  for  Brazilians.  He  summoned  a  sort 
of  legislature  of  the  principal  colonists — the  first  re- 
presentative assembly  on  South  American  soil — and 
put  into  effect  the  measures  it  proposed.  Local 
administration  was  entrusted  to  Brazilians,  and  his 
aim  was  evidently  to  make  the  colony  self-governing. 

But  this  positivist  of  the  seventeenth  century,  this 
genial  pagan  who  had  caught  the  essential  spirit  of 
the  Renaissance  and  had  the  courage  to  put  it  into 
practice  centuries  before  it  became  dominant  even  in 


THE  DUTCH  CONQUEST  359 

the  realm  of  thought,  was  too  far  in  advance  of  his 
time.  His  countrymen  could  not  understand  him  or 
his  ideas,  and  the  Portuguese  colonists  were  equally 
incapable  of  appreciating  what  he  was  trying  to  do 
for  them.  His  edifice  scattered  like  a  card  house  the 
moment  he  left.  To  all  appearances  every  vestige 
of  his  work  was  swept  away ;  it  is  only  a  memory 
and  an  example;  a  wave  that  dashed  far  up  the 
beach  at  the  beginning  of  the  flood-tide,  leaving  a 
mark  that  long  served  only  to  show  how  far  the 
water  had  once  come.  It  remained  for  the  nine- 
teenth century  and  another  nation  of  shopmen  to 
put  into  practice,  on  a  scale  large  enough  to  convince 
the  world,  the  great  principle  of  non-interference  by 
the  central  government  with  the  religious  beliefs 
and  the  local  self-government  of  colonies. 

The  moneyed  aristocrats  of  the  West  India  Com- 
pany distrusted  Maurice  as  a  member  of  a  reigning 
family  which  was  maintained  in  power  by  its  popu- 
larity with  the  masses.  The  Directory  wanted  im- 
mediate profits,  not  an  empire  established  on  a  broad 
and  sure  foundation.  In  their  hearts  they  preferred 
a  steward  and  bookkeeper  to  a  prince  and  a  states- 
man. The  Calvinist  clergy  bitterly  complained  of 
the  liberties  conceded  their  Catholic  competitors  for 
tithes,  and  succeeded  in  imposing  on  Maurice  the 
execution  of  the  prohibition  against  religious  pro- 
cessions— then  as  now  so  dear  to  the  Brazilian  heart. 
Spies  were  sent  out  to  report  on  him  and  he  was 
continually  hampered. 

Among  the  Brazilians  he  was  equally  misunder- 
stood.     While  personally  so  popular  that  not  one  of 


360  BRAZIL 

their  chroniclers  has  a  word  of  dispraise  for  him, 
they  could  not  forget  that  he  was  of  a  different  race 
and  religion,  and  he  did  not  succeed  in  converting 
them  to  his  ideas.  His  best  personal  friends  were 
among  those  most  influential,  after  his  departure,  in 
stirring  up  the  exclusive  Brazilian  feeling. 

Maurice  was  not  a  man  to  be  easily  daunted.  For 
seven  years  he  remained  in  office,  fighting  the  Di- 
rectory, the  Calvinist  ministers,,  the  corrupt  offi- 
cials, trying  to  reconcile  the  jealousies  between 
Dutchmen  and  Brazilians,  and  to  create  a  homogen- 
eous community.  But  after  the  power  of  the  Nassau 
family  began  to  decline  with  the  rise  of  the  Witt 
oligarchy,  the  Directory  determined  to  be  rid  of  him. 
In  1644  he  made  a  vigorous  demand  for  more  troops, 
and  when  it  was  refused  sent  in  a  Bismarckian  resig- 
nation, which,  to  his  surprise,  was  immediately  ac- 
cepted with  many  polite  protestations  of  thanks  foi 
his  services. 


CHAPTER   IX 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  DUTCH 


FOUR  years  before  Maurice's  retirement  Portugal 
broke  loose  from  Spain,  and  that  part  of  Brazil 
which  had  escaped  conquest  by  the  Dutch  promptly 
threw  off  the  Spanish  yoke.  In  Europe  Holland 
and  the  new  Portugal  were  naturally  in  alliance,  but 
the  former  was  not  magnanimous  enough  to  stop  her 
aggressions  in  Brazil,  and  the  latter  was  too  weak 
to  resent  them.  Among  the  Brazilians  dissatis- 
faction began  to  brew  as  soon  as  Maurice  left. 
The  prohibition  of  religious  processions,  the  severe 
financial  crisis  among  planters  who  were  unable  to 
pay  off  the  heavy  mortgages  which  they  had  given 
when  they  purchased  confiscated  plantations,  the 
low  price  of  sugar,  and  the  impulse  to  national  feel- 
ing given  by  the  news  of  the  success  of  the  mother 
country  in  achieving  independence  all  co-operated. 

The  opportunity  brought  forth  the  man.  The 
head  of  the  rebellion  was  John  Fernandes  Vieira, 
who  is  the  great  creator  of  the  Brazilian  nationality. 
A  native  of  Madeira,  he  ran  away  as  a  boy  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  Brazil.     Engaged  at  first  in  menial 

361 


362  BRAZIL 

employments,  his  honesty  and  capacity  soon  ena- 
bled him  to  strike  out  for  himself  as  a  sugar  planter. 
When  the  Dutch  attacked  Pernambuco  in  1630  he 
took  up  arms,  and  only  surrendered  when  Bom  Jesus 
fell.  Convinced  that  further  resistance  was  useless 
he  returned  to  his  business  and  within  ten  years  was 
the  richest  man  in  the  colony.  Though  a  devoted 
Catholic  and  a  patriotic  Portuguese,  he  was  one  of 
Maurice's  most  trusted  advisers.  When  the  Prince 
departed  John  Fernandes  thenceforward  devoted 
his  life  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Dutch. 

The  first  revolt  occurred  in  Maranhao,  where  the 
small  Dutch  garrison  had  to  abandon  that  captaincy 
as  early  as  1644.  In  Pernambuco  John  Fernandes 
organised  a  formidable  conspiracy,  and  letters  were 
despatched  to  the  new  Portuguese  king  asking  his 
aid.  John  IV.  did  not  dare  to  comply  openly,  for 
such  action  might  have  involved  him  in  a  war  with 
the  States-General,  but  the  governor-general  at  Ba- 
hia  was  as  unscrupulous  as  he  was  patriotic,  and 
secretly  afforded  the  conspirators  every  facility  in 
his  power.  The  celebrated  chiefs  of  the  guerrilla 
fighting  of  1630  to  1635,  Vidal,  Camarrao,  and  Dias, 
were  only  too  anxious  to  have  another  chance,  and 
gathered  their  bands  in  the  wilderness.  Arms  were 
obtained  from  Bahia,  and  in  1645  the  insurrection 
broke  out.  The  first  move  was  to  have  been  the 
massacre  of  the  principal  Hollanders,  but  the  plot 
was  discovered  and  the  conspirators  fled  for  their 
lives  to  the  interior.  At  a  place  called  Tabocas 
John  Fernandes  gathered  a  motley  crew  of  a  few 
hundred  together.       Only  three  hundred  of  his  fol- 


EXPULSION  OF   THE  DUTCH  363 

lowers  had  muskets,  but  they  were  protected  by- 
marshy  ground  in  front,  and  the  hiU  was  surrounded 
by  almost  impenetrable  cane-brakes.  There  on  the 
3rd  of  August  the  Dutch  troops  to  the  number  of  a 
thousand  found  and  attacked  the  Brazilians.  The 
bulk  of  the  population  was  standing  aloof,  his  camp 
was  full  of  mutiny,  nevertheless  John  Fernandes 
stood  firm.  The  Dutch  charged  confidently,  but 
they  could  not  use  their  firearms  to  advantage,  and 
the  Brazilians  showed  the  traditional  valour  of  their 
race  in  the  use  of  pike  and  sword.  The  Dutch  were 
not  able  to  dislodge  the  rebels,  and  after  losing  three 
hundred  and  seventy  men  they  retreated  to  Pernam- 
buco,  leaving  the  insurgents  with  all  the  moral  pre- 
stige of  victory. 

The  whole  province  rose;  the  troops,  which  had 
come  from  Bahia  ostensibly  to  aid  the  Dutch  in 
pacifying  the  province,  went  over  en  masse  to  the 
patriots;  the  Dutch  garrisons  in  the  outlying  towns 
were  everywhere  attacked  and  everywhere  retreated. 
A  few  grudgingly  paid  mercenaries  were  not  the 
material  with  which  to  defend  such  an  empire. 
Within  a  few  months  the  Dutch  were  expelled  from 
the  interior  and  shut  themselves  up  in  the  fortified 
seaports  waiting  for  re-enforcements.  The  Indians 
and  guerrillas  spread  fire  and  destruction  through 
Itamarica,  Parahyba,  Rio  Grande  do  Norte,  and 
Ceara.  In  spite  of  this  sudden  success  the  position 
of  the  patriots  was  very  critical.  Without  the  aid 
of  regular  troops  they  could  hardly  hope  to  make 
head  against  the  Dutch  so  soon  as  the  latter  re- 
ceived adequate  re-enforcements.     The  news  of  the 


364  BRAZIL 

insurrection  aroused  great  indignation  in  Holland. 
The  house  of  the  Portuguese  ambassador  was  sur- 
rounded by  an  infuriated  mob,  and  his  government 
had  to  disavow  the  rebellion.  Willing  as  John  IV. 
might  be  to  help  the  Brazilians,  he  dare  not.  By 
the  middle  of  1646  an  able  commander,  von 
Schoppke,  arrived  from  Holland  with  a  fine  army. 
At  first  John  Fernandes  and  the  militia  did  not  dare 
meet  him  in  the  field.  The  provincials  hovered 
about  the  Dutch  columns,  cutting  off  detachments, 
and  burning  sugar  plantations  in  the  line  of  march. 
John  Fernandes  set  the  example  by  ordering  the 
destruction  of  his  own  property. 

In  1647  Barreto  de  Menezes,  an  able  professional 
soldier,  arrived  in  Brazil  bearing  a  secret  commis- 
sion from  the  Portuguese  king.  The  bickering  and 
despairing  provincials  made  no  difficulty  about 
recognising  it,  and  Barreto  at  once  began  uniting 
the  scattered  militia  bands  and  the  few  regulars  who 
had  clandestinely  come  up  from  Bahia. 

A  few  miles  south  of  Pernambuco  the  low  hills 
encroach  on  the  coast-plain,  leaving  only  a  nar- 
row pass  between  themselves  and  the  marshes. 
Schoppke  made  a  sortie  along  the  coast  road  with 
the  largest  part  of  his  force, — about  four  thousand 
men, — and  there  at  the  hills  of  Guararapes  found  the 
patriot  army,  numbering  two  thousand  two  hundred. 
Encamped  across  the  level  ground  they  barred  his 
way,  with  the  evident  intention  of  giving  him  battle, 
and  there  on  the  i8th  of  August,  1648,  was  fought 
out  the  question  whether  Brazil  should  be  Dutch  or 
Portuguese.     The  defeat  of  the  patriots  would  have 


Expulsion  of  the  dutch  365 

meant  the  hopeless  collapse  of  the  rebellion  and  the 
giving  up  by  poor  little  Portugal  of  the  last  vestige 
of  her  claim  to  Brazil.  Success  meant  that  they 
might  prolong  the  war  for  years  and  finally  tire  out 
Holland,  or  give  the  Portuguese  government  a 
chance  to  do  something  by  negotiation. 

The  battle  began  with  the  Dutch  taking  posses- 
sion of  the  higher  ground  whence  their  artillery  in- 
flicted some  damage,  but  when  they  charged  down 
the  hill,  attempting  to  outflank  and  surround  the 
Brazilians,  there  ensued  a  confused  and  desperate 
struggle  with  cold  steel.  The  regulars  proved  no 
match  for  these  farmers,  who  were  fighting  for  their 
homes  and  religion.  The  Dutch  battalions  broke  and 
fled  up  the  hill,  followed  by  the  Brazilians.  Then 
the  Dutch  reserve  came  into  action  and  the  battle 
rolled  back  to  the  low  ground,  where  the  result  was 
decided  face  to  face  and  man  to  man.  Some  of  the 
braver  of  the  Dutch  imprudently  went  through  the 
Brazilian  lines  into  the  marshes,  where  they  suffered 
terrible  slaughter  at  the  hands  of  the  reserve.  More 
than  a  thousand  Hollanders  perished,  with  seventy- 
four  officers.  Thirty-three  standards  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Brazilians,  and  the  remnants  of  the 
Dutch  army  fled  to  the  shelter  of  the  walls  of  Per- 
nambuco.  The  cowardice  shown  by  many  of  his 
troops  is  the  only  excuse  offered  by  the  Dutch  gen- 
eral for  this  shameful  defeat  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
a  militia  inferior  not  only  in  equipment  and  artillery, 
but  in  numbers  and  advantage  of  position. 

The  descendants  of  the  victors  at  Guararapes 
have  never  forgotten  that  it  was  a  Brazilian  and  not 


366  BRAZIL 

a  Portuguese  triumph.  The  Brazilians  proved  to 
their  own  satisfaction  that  their  resources  were  suffi- 
cient to  defend  their  institutions,  and  it  has  been 
well  said  that  on  that  day  the  Brazilian  nation  was 
born. 

The  parsimonious  merchants  whose  money  was 
invested  in  the  Company  made  a  half-hearted  effort 
to  retrieve  this  unexpected  reverse,  but  re-enforce- 
ments were  sent  out  so  grudgingly  that  a  similar 
sortie  next  year  was  even  more  overwhelmingly 
defeated  at  the  very  same  place.  Even  then  the 
Brazilian  hopes  of  ultimate  success  would  have 
been  small  if  at  this  very  juncture  the  world-power 
of  Holland  had  not  received  its  first  great  check  by 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Oliver  Cromwell. 
With  English  fleets  sweeping  the  North  Sea  and 
Blake's  cannon  thundering  at  the  Texel,  the  States- 
General  had  no  forces  to  spare  on  far-away  Brazil. 
The  patriots  kept  the  Dutch  shut  up  in  Pernambuco 
and  were  undisputed  masters  of  the  rest  of  the  pro- 
vince. So  long  as  communication  by  sea  remained 
open  the  Dutch,  however,  could  maintain  them- 
selves indefinitely.  Re-enforcements  might  come 
at  any  time  from  Holland  and  the  negotiations  by 
Portugal  were  uncertain,  and  might,  indeed,  lead  to 
Brazil's  being  exchanged  for  an  advantage  elsewhere. 

John  Fernandes  steadfastly  maintained  the  siege, 
urging  his  followers  not  to  lay  down  their  arms  so 
long  as  a  Dutchman  remained  in  Brazil.  The  pusil- 
lanimous Portuguese  king  did  not  dare  help  the  Per- 
nambucanos,  and  neither  was  he  honest  enough  to 
abide  by  the  treaties  he  had  made  with  Holland,  giv- 


EXPULSION  OF    THE  DUTCH  367 

ing  up  all  claim  to  North  Brazil.  Matters  remained 
in  this  anomalous  position  until  1654,  when  John 
Fernandes  by  a  single  audacious  stroke  cut  through 
the  tangle  made  by  complicated  and  timid  European 
diplomacy. 

In  the  fall  of  1653  the  annual  Bahia  fleet  sailed 
from  the  Tagus,  convoyed  by  powerful  men-of-war. 
The  Dutch  had  no  naval  force  on  the  South  Am- 
erican coast  able  to  cope  with  it.  When  the 
Portuguese  fleet  hove  in  sight  of  Pernambuco,  the 
Brazilian  commanders  from  their  fortified  besieging 
camp  just  to  the  south  of  the  city  entered  into 
communication  with  the  Admiral.  John  Fernandes 
begged  the  latter  to  lend  him  some  cannon  for  a 
few  days  and  meanwhile  to  blockade  the  port.  The 
patriot  leader  saw  that  the  isolated  garrison  of 
mercenaries  would  have  no  heart  to  hold  out  for 
long.  The  Portuguese  Admiral  refused,  saying, 
truly  enough,  that  he  had  no  instructions  to  aid  the 
insurgent  Brazilians,  and  that  he  did  not  care  to  risk 
his  head  by  precipitating  a  war  between  Portugal 
and  Holland.  Fernandes  answered  that  with  or 
without  his  aid  the  assault  would  be  made,  and  the 
Admiral  yielded  to  his  natural  feelings  and  lent  the 
Brazilians  some  big  guns.  John  Fernandes  planted 
them  where  they  commanded  an  outlying  fort  he 
knew  to  be  vital  to  the  city's  defences.  Schoppke 
was  compelled  to  retire  within  the  central  city;  the 
Brazilians  made  successful  night  assaults  on  several 
positions,  and  drew  their  lines  closer  and  closer 
until  the  place  was  untenab  le.  On  the  26th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1655,  the  Dutch  general  signed  a  capitulation, 


368  BRAZIL 

surrendering  not  only  Pernambuco,  but  all  the  other 
places  held  by  the  Dutch  in  Brazil.  His  twelve 
hundred  troops  were  given  safe  passage  home,  and 
all  resident  Hollanders  were  allowed  three  months 
to  settle  their  affairs  before  leaving. 

Thus  ended  the  Dutch  dominion  in  Brazil.  Four 
provinces,  three  cities,  eight  towns,  fourteen  forti- 
fied places,  and  three  hundred  leagues  of  coast  were 
definitely  restored  to  the  Portuguese  Crown.  A 
gigantic  commercial  speculation  had  failed  before 
the  obstinate  resistance  of  a  few  farmers  animated 
by  a  love  of  country  and  religion.  Twenty-five 
years  of  bloody  warfare  or  sulky  acquiescence  in 
alien  rule  had  welded  the  Portuguese  colonists  along 
the  Brazilian  coast  into  a  nation.  Directly  from  the 
Dutch  they  had  learned  little  or  nothing.  Rather 
were  the  traits  which  have  ever  since  been  the  cause 
of  Brazil's  industrial  backwardness  intensified. 

The  characteristics  of  the  leaders  in  the  Pernam- 
buco war  of  independence  epitomise  the  races  of 
Brazil.  Vidal  is  the  type  of  a  high-class  Brazilian 
— generous,  jealous,  spendthrift,  proud,  intelligent, 
quick  at  expedients,  and  not  too  scrupulous  in  his 
use  of  them.  Camarrao,  the  Indian,  perished  be- 
fore the  final  victory  as  if  to  show  symbolically  that 
his  race  had  not  the  stamina  to  hold  out  in  com- 
petition with  white  or  black.  Dias  represents  the 
negro — unsurpassable  in  fideliiy  and  personal  cour- 
age, and  needing  only  leadership  to  show  trans-- 
cendent  military  qualities. 

John  Fernandes  was  a  curious  mixture  of  the 
mediaeval  and  modern.     His  wealth  did  not  make. 


EXPULSION  OF    THE  DUTCH  369 

him  cautious  where  his  country  was  concerned ;  he 
had  been  honoured  witli  the  intimate  confidence  of 
those  whom  he  fought ;  he  was  grave,  silent,  re- 
served, strongest  when  otiiers  were  most  discour- 
aged; no  feeHng  of  vanity  ever  interfered  with  his 
purposes;  if  another  man  could  do  a  piece  of  work 
better  than  he,  he  stepped  aside ;  when  success  was 
in  sight  he  imperturbably  let  showier  men  have 
the  glory.  Religious  faith  and  feudal  loyalty  were 
the  mainsprings  of  his  nature;  nevertheless  in  war 
he  was  cautious,  indefatigable,  and  calculating.  In 
crises  he  struck  like  a  sledge-hammer,  though  he 
could  wait  patiently  and  uncomplainingly  for  an 
opportunity.  His  was  not  a  pride  that  disdains 
artifices.  He  conspired  secretly  and  subtly,  and 
with  all  his  apparent  moderation  of  character  he 
blindly  and  unreasoningly  hated  everything  Protest- 
ant and  non-Portuguese.  On  the  hill  at  Tabocas 
his  battle-cry  was:  "Portuguese!  At  the  heretics! 
God  is  with  us!  "  When  the  Dutch  made  their  last 
desperate  charge,  and  it  seemed  as  if  all  was  up  with 
his  band  of  insurgents,  he  refused  to  flee,  but  stood 
beside  the  crucifix,  calling  on  the  Virgin  and  the 
saints,  and  exhorting  his  companions  to  die  rather 
than  yield  to  the  unbelievers.  When  the  Dutch 
gave  back  he  fell  on  his  knees  and  intoned  a  hymn. 
With  each  new  victory  gained  he  vowed  a  church  to 
the  Virgin.  When  desperate  over  the  hesitation  of 
the  Admiral  in  the  last  scene  of  the  war,  his  final 
argument,  made  in  all  sincerity,  was  that  failure 
to  expel  the  Dutch  meant  exposing  thousands  of 
Catholics  to  the  temptation  of  denying  their  faith 

VOL.  I.— 24. 


370  BRAZIL 

by  a  renewal  of  the  heretic  rule,  and  that  for  him- 
self, rather  than  share  the  responsibility  for  the 
murder  of  thousands  of  souls,  he  would  lead  his  Bra- 
zilians to  certain  death. 

Relentless  to  his  enemies,  to  his  friends  and  de- 
pendents he  was  kindness  itself.  It  is  related  that 
a  Portuguese,  landed  with  hardly  clothes  enough  to 
cover  him,  and  seeking  a  protector,  was  directed  to 
Fernandes.  The  latter  was  mounting  his  horse 
to  go  on  a  journey.  To  the  man's  offer  of  allegi- 
ance and  appeal  for  help,  he  answered:  "I  am 
going  to  my  house  ten  miles  away  and  have  no 
leisure  now  to  relieve  you,  but  follow  me  thither  on 
foot.  If  you  are  too  weak  to  walk,  take  this  horse  I 
am  on.  If  you  are  faithful  you  shall  have  support 
as  long  as  my  means  hold  out ;  if  they  fail,  and  there 
should  be  nothing  else  to  eat,  I  will  cut  off  a  leg 
and  we  will  eat  it  together."  This  was  said  with  so 
grave  a  face  and  severe  a  manner  that  the  poor 
Portuguese  thought  he  meant  to  repulse  him.  But 
on  inquiry  he  found  that  Fernandes  rarely  smiled 
and  that  literally  all  that  he  had  was  at  the  service 
of  his  adherents. 


CHAPTER   X 


THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY 


IN  162 1  the  northern  provinces,  Ceara,  Maranhao, 
and  Para,  had  been  separated  from  the  rest  of 
Brazil  and  erected  into  an  independent  government 
called  the  State  of  Maranhao.  In  Ceara  the  cattle- 
industry  flourished ;  around  the  beautiful  bay  of 
Maranhao  the  Azoreans  multiplied  their  colonies. 
Cotton,  mandioc,  and  sugar  were  grown  in  large 
quantities;  the  cotton  manufacture  soon  became  an 
important  industry.  But  the  mysterious  Amazon, 
whose  entrance  was  guarded  by  the  town  of  Para, 
seemed  most  attractive  of  all.  No  civilised  man 
had  penetrated  its  length  since  Orellana's  adventur- 
ous voyage  of  a  century  before.  In  1638  Jacom^ 
Raymundo,  an  able  Brazilian,  temporarily  acting  as 
governor  of  Para,  determined  to  explore  the  great 
river.  The  expedition  which  he  sent  out  found  its 
way  up  the  windings  of  the  multitudinous  channels, 
and  after  eight  months  reached  the  first  Spanish 
settlement  in  the  east  of  Ecuador.  The  Spanish 
authorities  at  Lima  and  Quito  saw  no  particular 
value  in  a  route  through  a  territory   in  which  no 

371 


372  BRAZIL 

gold  or  silver  had  been  discovered,  and  which  by 
the  Spanish  policy  could  not  be  used  for  commerce. 
But  when,  two  years,  later  Portugal  regained  her  in- 
dependence the  expedition  turned  out  to  have  been 
of  vast  importance.  The  Portuguese  had  found  the 
practicable  route  into  the  great  river  valley;  they 
controlled  the  mouth  of  the  stream ;  and  though 
the  whole  territory  lay  west  of  the  Tordesillas  line 
Spain  never  asserted  any  effective  claim  to  it. 

Meanwhile  the  conquest  of  the  great  interior 
plateaux  to  the  south  was  rapidly  proceeding.  The 
wars  with  the  Dutch  rather  stimulated  than  retarded 
it,  for,  so  long  as  the  Dutch  commanded  the  sea, 
the  widely  separated  provinces  were  obliged  to  com- 
municate by  land,  and  the  Indian  routes  became 
better  known  to  the  Brazilians.  Settlers  driven 
from  the  sugar  plantations  on  the  coast  took  up 
cattle-raising  in  the  interior  of  the  northern  pro- 
vinces. In  the  extreme  South,  as  early  as  1635  the 
Paulistas  had  rooted  out  the  Jesuit  settlements  from 
the  whole  region  of  the  Parana.  To  the  North  they 
traversed  the  Sao  Francisco  valley  and  the  plateau 
of  Goyaz.  Manoel  Correa  explored  the  latter  region 
in  1647,  and  in  1671  another  PauHsta,  Domingos 
Jorge,  penetrated  with  a  force  of  subject  Indians 
into  the  great  treeless  plains  which  extend  beyond 
the  mountain  ranges  bounding  the  Sao  Francisco 
valley  on  the  north.  These  plains  are  now  the 
state  of  Piauhy.  At  about  the  same  time  the  cattle- 
raisers  who  had  established  themselves  on  the  lower 
Sao  Francisco  in  Bahia,  crossed  over  into  the  same 
territory  of  Piauhy.     Within  a  short  time  the  In- 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  373 

dians  were  reduced  to  submission,  and  the  cattle 
ranges  were  extended  over  the  plains  of  Piauhy, 
southern  Ceard,  and  the  adjacent  provinces.  This 
great  conquest  completed  the  junction  of  southern 
and  central  Brazil  with  Maranhao  and  Para.  Loner 
lines  of  land  communication  were  established,  and 
over  them  travel  was  more  frequent  than  would 
seem  likely.  Piauhy  and  Ceara  soon  produced  an 
enormous  surplus  of  cattle  whose  export  into  other 
provinces  brought  about  a  revolution  in  the  ali- 
mentation of  the  coast  Brazilians.  The  Indians  along 
the  north-east  coast  were  gradually  incorporated, 
destroyed,  or  pushed  back,  though  it  was  not  until 
1699  that  they  were  finally  subdued  in  Rio  Grande 
do  Norte.  From  this  time  dates  the  astonishing 
development  of  the  population  of  Ceara,  who  during 
this  century  have  furnished  nearly  all  the  labour  for 
the  gathering  of  rubber. 

In  the  South,  settlements  multiplied  up  and  down 
the  coast  from  Rio  until  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
present  state  was  occupied.  Rio  and  Sao  Paulo 
flourished  with  the  profits  of  the  clandestine  trade 
with  the  Spanish  colonies.  The  Paulistas  con- 
tinued to  spread  in  every  direction.  By  1654  they 
had  occupied  the  headwaters  of  the  Parahyba  and 
west  as  far  as  Soracaba. 

During  the  period  just  following  the  expulsion  of 
the  Dutch  the  Portuguese  government  was  not  able 
to  enforce  its  policy  of  commercial  exclusivism. 
Treaties  with  Holland  and  England  gave  the  citi- 
zens of  those  countries  a  right  to  trade  with  Brazil, 
and  the  colonists  kept  up  their  commerce  with  the 


374  BRAZIL 

Spanish  possessions.  Municipal  charters  were  freely 
granted  to  Brazilian  towns,  and  the  existing  fran- 
chises reformed  according  to  the  most  liberal  model 
in  Portugal — that  of  Porto.  Brazilians  were  relieved 
of  the  absurd  feudal  distinctions  which  exempted 
nobles  alone  from  liability  to  torture,  and  regulated 
the  clothes  a  man  might  wear.  The  extraordinary 
rapidity  of  Brazil's  increase  in  population  and  terri- 
tory during  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  largely  due  to  comparative  freedom  from  vex- 
atious restrictions  and  exactions — commerical  and 
governmental.  By  the  end  of  the  century  there 
were  three-quarters  of  a  million  people  in  Brazil — a 
fivefold  increase  in  seventy  years,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  most  populous  provinces  had  been  the 
scene  of  war  for  twenty-four  years  of  that  time. 

But  the  Portuguese  government  lost  little  time  in 
returning  to  the  old  restrictive  conditions.  Since 
the  loss  of  the  Indies,  Brazil  was  Portugal's  principal 
source  of  wealth,  and  aristocracy  and  Court  made 
the  most  of  the  unhappy  colony. 

Navigation  companies  were  chartered  and  given  a 
monopoly  of  all  commerce  —  export  and  import. 
The  Jesuits  renewed  their  efforts  to  gain  control  of 
the  Indians.  In  Sao  Paulo  they  had  no  chance  of 
success,  but  in  the  North  the  celebrated  Padre  An- 
tonio Vieira,  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  that  Port- 
ugal has  ever  produced,  was  given  a  free  hand.  He 
nearly  smothered  the  whites  of  Maranhao  and  Para 
with  a  ring  of  missions,  and  his  successors  estab- 
lished settlements  on  the  Amazon  which  finally 
spread  so  as  to  communicate  with  the  Spanish  mis- 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  375 

sions  in  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Paraguay.  The  Brazilians 
of  Maranhao  and  Para  did  not  object  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  valley  of  the  Amazon,  but  they  bitterly 
resented  the  Jesuit  encroachments  in  thair  own 
neighbourhood.  In  1684  a  rebellion  finally  broke 
out  in  Maranhao  under  the  leadership  of  Manoel 
Beckman.  He  paid  the  forfeit  with  his  life,  but  his 
work  had  warned  the  Portuguese  authorities  that 
they  must  not  push  their  favours  to  the  Jesuits  too 
far. 

During  the  long  Dutch  war  many  Pernambucan 
negroes  had  fled  into  the  interior,  where  they  had 
established  themselves  in  independent  communities 
and  refused  to  recognise  white  supremacy.  They 
fortified  their  villages  with  palisades,  obtained  wives 
by  raids  on  the  plantations,  elected  chiefs,  devised 
rude  forms  of  administering  justice,  and  adopted  a 
religion  which  was  a  mixture  of  the  nature  worship 
of  their  African  ancestors  with  the  outward  forms  of 
Christianity.  In  spite  of  numerous  efforts  to  de- 
stroy them,  these  strange  republics  lasted  fifty  years. 
It  was  not  until  1697  that  a  Paulista  chief,  Domin- 
gos  Jorge,  who  was  employed  after  the  regulars  had 
failed,  succeeded  in  shutting  the  negroes  up  in  their 
great  palisade  at  Palmares.  Seven  thousand  men 
took  part  in  the  assault,  and  of  the  ten  thousand 
negroes  who  defended  it  none  were  spared. 

This  was  the  only  serious  attempt  at  revolt  on  the 
part  of  the  blacks  which  ever  occurred  in  Brazil. 
Except  for  a  few  easily  suppressed  insurrections 
which  mostly  occurred  in  Bahia  among  the  recent 
arrivals,  the  negroes  remained  in  abject  submission 


376  BRAZIL 

until  nearly  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  comparative  mildness  of  the  Brazilian  treatment 
of  negroes,  the  practice  of  voluntary  manumission, 
and  the  fact  that  no  impenetrable  race  barrier  existed 
all  contributed  to  make  slavery  a  less  fearful  thing  in 
Brazil  than  in  North  America. 

Both  Spain  and  Portugal  claimed  the  coast  be- 
tween Santos  and  the  river  Plate  under  the  treaty  of 
Tordesillas,  but  neither  nation  had  made  any  serious 
attempt  to  take  possession  up  to  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Tor- 
desillas line  passed  near  the  southern  boundary  of 
the  Brazilian  state  of  Sao  Paulo,  but  the  Portuguese 
maps  pushed  all  Brazil  eight  degrees  to  the  east,  and 
Portugal  claimed  that  the  line  passed  near  the  point 
where  the  Parana  and  Uruguay  unite  to  form  the 
Plate.  The  Paulistas  had  made  this  claim  effective 
over  much  of  the  disputed  territory. 

For  a  century  after  the  foundation  of  Buenos 
Aires  the  Spaniards  failed  to  occupy  the  north  mar- 
gin of  the  Plate,  and  in  1680  the  Portuguese  fore- 
stalled them  by  founding  a  colony  and  fort,  called 
Colonia,  directly  opposite  Buenos  Aires.  The 
Spanish  governor  promptly  resented  this  piece  of 
audacity  and  captured  the  place,  but  was  compelled 
to  restore  it  immediately  by  orders  from  Madrid. 
Louis  XIV.,  who  was  then  arbiter  of  Europe,  had 
no  mind  to  allow  a  war  to  be  precipitated  over  so 
insignificant  a  matter  as  a  post  in  an  uninhabited 
part  of  South  America.  However,  the  question  of 
right  to  the  territory  was  left  open  for  future  deter- 
mination.    Colonia  at  that  time  was  chiefly  valued 


THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


Z77 


as  an  entrepot  for  clandestine  trade  with  the  Spanish 
provinces,  but  to  its  existence  can  be  traced  Brazil- 
ian possession  of  the  great  states  of  Parana,  Santa 
Catharina,  and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  even  Brazil's 
dominance  in  the  Upper  Parana  valley,  a  dominance 
which  would  have  been  lost  had  Spain  insisted  upon 
the  true  Tordesillas  line. 


CHAPTER  XI 


GOLD    DISCOVERIES — REVOLTS — FRENCH    ATTACKS 


THE  early  attempts  to  find  gold  and  silver  had 
not  been  successful.  A  little  gold  was  found 
in  Sao  Paulo  in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  no  great 
discoveries  were  made  until  nearly  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth.  The  Paulistas,  who  scoured  the  interior 
in  their  slave-hunts,  occasionally  came  across  indica- 
tions of  gold,  and  rumours  constantly  reached  the 
coast.  But  for  a  long  time  the  Paulistas  failed, 
either  through  ignorance  or  design,  to  give  sufifi- 
ciently  exact  information.  After  1670  the  rumours 
became  so  circumstantial  that  no  doubt  was  felt  that 
the  mountain  ranges  around  the  headwaters  of  the 
Sao  Francisco  River  were  gold-bearing.  Stimulated 
by  governmert  promises  of  liberal  treatment,  the 
Paulistas  undertook  the  hunt  in  earnest.  About 
1690  tliey  found  the  rich  gold  washings  of  Sahara, 
where  to-day  is  one  of  the  great  mines  of  the  world 
— the  Morro  Velho.  This  is  three  hundred  miles 
directly  north  of  Rio.  In  1693,  Antonio  Arzao,  a 
Paulista,  penetrated  west  from  this  region  to  the 
seacoast  at  Victoria,  bringing  with  him  native  gold 

378 


GOLD  DISCOVERIES  379 

in  large  nuggets.  These  were  sent  to  Portugal  and 
created  intense  excitement.  The  Paulistas  followed 
up  these  first  discoveries  by  soon  finding  half  a 
dozen  other  fields — all  of  them  yielding  gold  in 
abundance  to  the  crudest  processes.  A  rush  started 
that  threatened  to  depopulate  the  seacoast  and 
even  Portugal  itself.  The  find  was  the  greatest  gold 
discovery  which  had  been  made  in  the  history  of  the 
world  up  to  that  time.  The  one  province  of  Minas 
Geraes  produced  seven  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand ounces  within  the  first  fifty  years,  and  its  total 
product  to  the  present  time  has  been  twenty-five 
million  ounces. 

The  PauHsta  discoverers  of  the  mines  soon  became 
involved  in  quarrels  with  the  swarms  of  adventurers 
who  poured  in  from  Portugal.  The  gov^ernment  at 
first  did  not  establish  any  regular  control  over  the 
mining  region,  and  disputes  arose  between  the  old 
and  new  comers  as  to  proprietorship  of  claims. 
Anarchy  and  civil  war  ensued,  but  the  foreign  ele- 
ment, nicknamed  the  "emboabas,"  came  out  on  top 
with  a  strong  man,  Nunes  Vianna,  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  He  became  the  virtual  ruler  of  the  region, 
and  the  Portuguese  authorities  at  Rio,  seeing  their 
perquisites  endangered,  tried  to  get  rid  of  him  by 
force.  They  were  unsuccessful,  but  finally  managed 
to  seduce  his  followers  and  secure  a  recognition  of 
their  own  paramount  authority  by  solemn  promises 
to  concede  the  reasonable  demands  of  the  miners. 
These  promises  were  not  kept.  Vianna,  though  he 
had  been  induced  to  surrender  on  assurances  that 
his  life  would  be  spared,  was  assassinated. 


380  BRAZIL 

The  mining  laws,  at  first  liberal,  were  narrowed 
until  exploration  was  discouraged  and  production 
oppressed.  For  years  the  authorities  tried  to  col- 
lect a  fixed  amount  for  each  slave  employed — a  pro- 
vision which  discouraged  searches  for  new  deposits. 
Then  the  system  of  requiring  all  gold  to  be  taken  to 
government  melting-houses  was  enforced.  Export 
in  dust  or  nuggets  was  forbidden,  and  no  gold  was 
allowed  in  circulation  except  that  which  bore  the 
government  stamp  showing  it  had  paid  the  king's 
fifth.  This  involved  the  searching  of  every  traveller's 
pockets  and  the  posting  of  detachments  of  soldiers 
at  every  crossroads.  So  oppressive  and  inconvenient 
was  this  that  finally  the  chief  miners  and  municipal 
authorities  agreed  to  be  responsible  for  a  lump  sum 
yearly. 

The  war  of  the  emboabas  ended  in  1709,  but 
troubles  broke  out  in  the  mining  regions  from  time 
to  time  down  to  the  end  of  the  colonial  period. 
These  struggles  for  local  self-government — for  the 
right  to  exist — were  not  confined  to  Minas.  In 
various  forms  and  at  various  times  they  were  re- 
peated in  most  of  the  provinces,  and  a  strong  belief 
in  local  autonomy  never  died  out,  though  for  long 
periods  it  was  apparently  crushed  out  of  existence. 

Simultaneously  with  the  overthrow  of  the  semi- 
independent  government  of  Minas,  which  had  been 
set  up  by  the  emboabas,  a  civil  war  broke  out  in  the 
old. province  of  Pernambuco.  This  was  a  struggle 
of  the  oligarchy  of  native  Brazilian  sugar-planters 
against  the  rigorous  and  corrupt  rule  of  the  royal 
governors    and    against   the    encroachments   of   the 


REVOLTS  381 

newly  arrived  Portuguese.  Then,  as  now,  foreigners 
conducted  the  trade  of  Brazil ;  the  Brazilian  aristo- 
crats remained  on  their  plantations,  disdaining  the 
small  economies  and  anxieties  of  commerce.  The 
Portuguese  were  the  peddlers,  shopkeepers,  and 
money-lenders  for  the  community,  as  well  as  the 
officials  of  the  government.  In  both  capacities 
they  pressed  hard  on  the  extravagant  Brazilians. 
Olinda,  the  old  capital,  was  the  headquarters  Oi  the 
latter.  Recife,  three  miles  south,  was  the  port  and 
chiefly  inhabited  by  native  Portuguese.  It  had  out- 
run Olinda  during  the  Dutch  occupation,  but  was 
legally  only  an  administrative  dependency  of  the 
older  and  smaller  town.  In  1709  the  Portuguese 
government  made  Recife  a  separate  city— a  step 
which  was  bitterly  resented  by  the  Brazilians  and 
especially  by  the  close  corporation  of  native  families 
who  controlled  the  Olinda  municipal  government. 
Hostilities  broke  out  between  them  and  the  gov- 
ernor. Two  thousand  Pernambucanos  invaded  Re- 
cife ;  the  troops  deserted  and  the  governor  fled  for 
his  life,  while  the  royal  charter  to  Recife  was  torn 
to  bits  by  the  mob.  The  heads  of  the  insurrection 
met  to  determine  what  form  of  government  should 
be  adopted.  Bernardo  Vieira,  the  best  soldier  in 
the  colony,  proposed  that  a  republic  should  be 
founded  on  the  plan  of  Venice,  probably  the  first 
time  a  republic  was  ever  adv'ocated  on  American  soil. 
The  proposition  met  with  much  favour,  but  the  con- 
servatives shrank  from  so  radical  a  departure.  The 
bishop  was  made  acting-governor,  but  his  hand 
proved  not  firm  enough  to   control  the   divergent 


382  BRAZIL 

interests  and  ambitions.  The  Portuguese — "mas- 
cates"  they  were  called — revolted  in  their  turn  and 
drove  him  from  Recife.  The  Pernambucanos  be- 
sieged the  place,  but  the  loss  of  the  seaport  was  a 
heavy  blow.  The  Olinda  oligarchy  was  not  able  to 
secure  the  co-operation  of  the  smaller  municipal- 
ities, and  civil  war  spread  throughout  the  province. 
When  a  new  governor  appeared  with  a  commission 
from  the  king,  he  had  little  difficulty,  by  promises 
of  fair  treatment,  in  inducing  all  parties  to  lay  down 
their  arms.  No  sooner,  however,  was  he  safely  in 
power  than  he  imprisoned  and  banished  the  chiefs 
of  the  revolt,  especially  selecting  those  who  had 
favoured  an  independent  republic. 

All  three  great  revolts — Beckman's  in  Maranhao, 
that  of  the  emboabas  in  Minas,  and  the  Olinda  re- 
bellion of  1 710 — followed  substantially  the  same 
course.  Local  feeling  was  strong  enough  to  sweep 
all  before  it  for  a  time,  but  lack  of  capacity  for  or- 
ganisation, intestine  quarrels,  want  of  persistency, 
soon  enabled  the  Portuguese  officials  to  re  establish 
themselves  more  firmly  than  ever. 

Meanwhile  Portugal  had  become  involved  in  the 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  Colon ia  was  again 
captured  by  the  Spanish  of  Buenos  Aires,  and 
though  it  was  restored  at  the  end  of  the  war  its 
trade  was  never  so  prosperous  afterwards.  In  the 
Upper  Amazon  Spanish  Jesuits  had  come  down 
from  Quito,  but  the  Portuguese  expelled  them, 
thereby  confirming  Portugal's  title  as  far  as  the 
foothills  of  the  Andes.  The  Spaniards  of  the 
eighteenth  century  no  more  than  the  Peruvians  and 


FRENCH  ATT  A  CKS  383 

Bolivians  of  the  nineteenth  were  able  to  cope  with 
the  difficulties  of  transit  from  the  Pacific  side  of  the 
mountains.  Portugal's  effective  possession  reached 
to  the  70th  meridian  from  Greenwich — sixteen  hun- 
dred miles  west  of  the  Tordesillas  line. 

Rio  was  the  only  important  Brazilian  port  which 
had  escaped  attack  by  hostile  fleets  during  the  pre- 
ceding century,  and  the  discovery  of  the  gold  mines 
gave  a  tremendous  impetus  to  its  prosperity  and 
wealth.  The  only  gateway  to  the  mining  territory, 
its  population  of  over  twelve  thousand  was  soon  one 
of  the  richest  and  busiest  in  all  America.  The  op- 
portunity was  too  tempting  to  be  neglected  by  the 
French  prize-hunters.  A  daring  Frenchman,  named 
Duclerc,  appeared  before  the  city  in  17 10,  but,  seeing 
that  he  had  not  ships  strong  enough  to  force  the 
entrance,  landed  with  a  thousand  marines  forty  miles 
down  the  coast.  They  met  with  no  resistance  in 
their  march  through  the  woods  and  arrived  back 
of  the  city  without  loss.  Thence  they  proceeded 
coolly  to  charge  into  the  narrow  streets  in  the  face 
of  the  artillery  fire  from  the  hilltop  forts  that  sur- 
round the  city.  The  audacious  enterprise  was  very 
nearly  successful.  The  Portuguese  regulars  offered 
no  effective  resistance,  and  the  main  body  of  the 
French  penetrated  to  the  very  centre  of  the  city. 
There  they  were  checked  by  a  little  party  of  students 
who  had  climbed  into  the  governor's  palace  and  were 
firing  out  of  the  windows.  The  French  finally  took 
the  palace  by  assault,  but  meanwhile  the  city  had 
risen  behind  them,  their  scattered  detachments  were 
massacred    in    detail,   and    the    main    body  in  the 


384  BRAZIL 

palace  had  to  surrender  at  discretion.  The  Por- 
tuguese sullied  their  victory  by  acts  of  mediaeval 
cruelty — killing  most  of  the  prisoners. 

The  victims  did  not  long  remain  unavenged.  As 
soon  as  the  news  reached  France,  Admiral  Duguay- 
Trouin,  one  of  the  ablest  seamen  his  nation  has 
produced,  volunteered  to  lead  an  expedition  to  Rio. 
Wealthy  merchants  of  St.  Malo  supplied  the  money, 
and  in  June,  171 1,  he  sailed  with  seven  line-of-battle 
ships,  six  frigates,  and  four  smaller  vessels,  manned 
by  five  thousand  picked  men.  Secretly  as  the 
expedition  had  been  despatched,  the  Portuguese 
had  received  warning.  The  garrison  had  been  re- 
enforced  and  the  narrow-mouthed  harbour  and  hill- 
commanded  city  were  defended  by  three  forts  and 
eleven  batteries,  besides  four  ships  of  the  line  and 
four  frigates.  Favoured  by  a  foggy  morning  he  ran 
boldly  in,  suffering  little  loss.  Of  the  Portuguese 
men-of-war  not  one  escaped.  Fort  Villegagnon  was 
blown  up  by  the  mismanagement  of  its  garrison,  the 
Portuguese  became  demoralised,  Trouin  put  a  bat- 
tery on  an  unoccupied  island  within  cannon-shot  of 
the  city,  and  disembarked  troops  to  the  left  of  the 
town  where  a  range  of  hills  made  it  easy  to  domin- 
ate the  low  ground.  The  poor  governor  knew  no 
better  tactics  than  to  let  the  French  enter  the 
streets  and  then  overpower  them  in  fighting  from 
the  houses.  But  Trouin  was  too  old  a  soldier  to 
be  caught  like  his  fellow-countrymen  the  year  be- 
fore. He  coolly  advanced  his  batteries  and  soon 
had  the  town  commanded  on  three  sides;  it  was 
only  a  question  of  getting  his  cannon  into  position 


FRENCH  ATTACKS 


3B5 


when  he  could  batter  the  place  at  his  leisure.  Panic 
extended  from  the  citizens  to  the  soldiers,  and  a 
week  after  the  French  had  entered  the  harbour  the 
governor  fled  ignominiously  to  the  interior,  and  the 
French  took  possession  unopposed. 

Revenge  and  plunder  had  been  the  objects  of  the 
expedition.  It  would  have  been  very  difficult  for  the 
French  to  have  remained  in  permanent  possession 
of  the  city,  and  a  conquest  of  the  interior,  with  its 
large  population  and  mountainous  character,  was  not 
to  be  thought  of.  The  city  was  admitted  to  ransom 
on  giving  up  the  surviving  prisoners  of  the  Duclerc 
expedition.  Duguay-Trouin  sailed  triumphantly 
back  to  France  with  a  treasure  which  netted  the 
Norman  merchants  who  had  fitted  him  out  ninety- 
two  per  cent,  on  their  investment,  in  spite  of  the 
wrecking  of  the  biggest  ship  on  the  homeward  voy- 
age. 

vou  I.— 25 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 


M 


ONTEVIDEO  was  founded  in  1726  and  be- 
came the  nucleus  of  the  Spanish  settlements 
wliich  have  grown  into  the  modern  country  of  Uru- 
guay. Except  Colonia,  the  only  Portuguese  settle- 
ments south  of  the  25th  degree  were  the  town  or, 
Santa  Catharina  Island,  the  unimportant  village  of 
Laguna  on  the  coast-plain,  and  the  scattered  ranches 
of  a  few  adventurous  Paulistas  on  the  plateau. 

The  founding  of  Montevideo  drew  the  serious  at- 
tcnti')!!  of  the  Rio  government  to  the  valuable  coun- 
try between  the  Plate  and  Santa  Catharina.  The 
Paulistas  had  thoroughly  explored  the  plains  and 
found  them  swarming  with  cattle.  The  chief  obsta- 
cle to  the  foundation  of  a  military  post  as  a  nucleus 
for  the  settlement  of  Rio  Grande  and  eastern  Uru- 
guay was  the  lack  of  a  harbour  on  that  sandy  coast. 
When  the  next  European  war  broke  out,  in  1735, 
the  Spaniards  again  besieged  Colonia,  and  estab- 
lished forts  and  settlements  along  the  Uruguayan 
coast,  from  Montevideo  to  the  present  Brazilian  bor- 
der.     In    1737,   the  Portuguese  authorities  sent  an 

386 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


387 


expedition  to  take  Montevideo,  which  failed.  On 
the  way  back  the  Portuguese  built  a  little  fort  at  the 
only  entrance  which  gives  access  to  the  great  series 
of  lagoons  which  run  parallel  to  the  coast  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  north  of  the  southern  Brazil- 
ian frontier.  This  is  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  A  few  years  later,  a  consider- 
able number  of  settlers  from  the  Azores  Islands  were 
introduced,  who  engaged  in  agriculture  along  the 
fertile  borders  of  the  great  Duck  Lagoon. 


RIO   GRANDE   DO    SUL. 

In  1750,  Spain  and  Portugal  made  an  attempt  to 
reach  an  amicable  and  rational  agreement  about 
their  South  American  boundaries.  Up  to  that  time, 
Spain  had  stubbornly  claimed  the  territory  as  far 
north  and  east  as  Santos,  and  Portugal  was  even 
more  unreasonable  in  asserting  her  exclusive  right 
to  the  coast  as  far  south  and  west  as  the  mouth  of 
the  Uruguay.  The  treaty  of  1750  virtually  recog 
nised  the  uti possidetis.     Portugal  agreed  to  give  up 


388  BRAZIL 

Colania,  and  the  boundary  to  her  possessions  and 
those  of  Spain  was  drawn  between  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments in  Uruguay  and  the  Portuguese  settlements 
in  Rio  Grande.  The  seven  Jesuit  missions  in  the 
interior,  two  hundred  miles  to  the  north,  were 
abandoned  by  the  Spanish  government.  Spain  de- 
liberately ceded  these  tens  of  thousands  of  peaceful 
and  prosperous  civilised  Indians,  and  even  agreed 
that  her  troops  should  assist  the  Portuguese  in  the 
cruel  dispossession.  The  Indians  fought  desperately 
and  unavailingly.  But  this  iniquitous  provision  of 
the  treaty  was  the  only  part  of  it  which  was  ever  car- 
ried into  effect.  Spanish  public  opinion  protested, 
the  boundary  commissions  could  not  agree,  Portugal 
put  off  the  surrender  of  Colonia  on  one  pretext  or 
another,  and  in  1761  the  treaty  fell  to  the  ground 
and  all  the  questions  were  left  open. 

That  year  Spain  and  Portugal  became  embroiled 
on  opposite  sides  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  the 
Spaniards  from  Buenos  Aires  invaded  the  disputed 
territory  in  overwhelming  force.  CoJonia  was  taken 
and  in  1763  the  Spanish  governor  led  his  army 
against  the  Portuguese  settlements  in  Rio  Grande. 
The  fortified  town  of  Rio  Grande  fell,  the  superior 
Argentine  cavalry  drove  the  Rio  Grandenses  back 
to  the  coast,  and  the  Portuguese  territory  was  re- 
duced to  the  north-east  quarter  of  the  state.  The 
flourishing  farms  of  the  Azorean  settlers  were  laid 
waste,  and  from  this  invasion  dates  the  adoption  by 
the  Rio  Grandenses  of  pastoral  habits.  The  Treaty 
of  Paris  put  an  end  to  the  war  in  Europe.  The 
Spaniards  ceased  their  advance,   they  restored  Co- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  389 

Ionia  once  more,  but  retained  their  conquests  in 
southern  Rio  Grande. 

The  Rio  Grandenses  made  good  use  of  the  breath- 
ing-spell. They  cared  little  whether  there  was  peace 
or  war  in  Europe,  and  four  years  later  made  a  des- 
perate effort  to  recapture  their  old  capital  and  re- 
gain their  farms  in  the  south.  Disavowed  by  their 
government,  they  still  kept  on  fighting;  soon  they 
made  a  regular  business  of  raiding  the  territory  oc- 
cupied by  the  Spaniards;  the  beef  they  found  on 
the  plains  was  their  food ;  they  were  always  in  the 
saddle  and  soon  became  the  finest  of  irregular  cavalry 
and  partisan  fighters. 

The  Spaniards  retaliated  by  inxading  northern 
Rio  Grande,  but  never  succeeded  in  routing  the  Rio 
Grandenses  from  their  last  strongholds.  In  1775  the 
Brazilians  were  re-enforced  from  Sao  Paulo  and  Rio 
and  took  the  aggressive,  and  the  following  year 
recaptured  the  city  of  Rio  Grande.  The  Spanish 
government  took  prompt  steps  to  avenge  this  loss. 
A  great  fleet  was  sent  out,  Santa  Catharina  was  cap- 
tured, an  army  of  four  thousand  men  was  on  the 
march  up  from  Montevideo  to  sweep  the  Portuguese 
out  of  all  southern  Brazil  once  and  for  all.  But  in 
this  crisis  European  politics  again  saved  Brazil  from 
dismemberment.  France  and  Spain  were  forming 
a  coalition  against  England  in  the  War  of  Ameri- 
can Independence.  Spain  wished  to  have  her  hands 
free  and  to  isolate  England.  The  Spanish  fleet  and 
army  were  at  the  gates  of  Rio  Grande  when  the 
Treaty  of  San  Ildefonso  was  signed  in  1777.  The 
Portuguese  definitely  relinquished  Colonia ;  Uruguay 


390 


BRAZIL 


and  the  Seven  Missions  remained  Spanish,  but  most 
of  southern  Rio  Grande  which  the  Portuguese  had 
lost  in  1763,  as  well  as  Santa  Catharina,  was  restored 
to  them. 

The  thirty-four  years  of  peace  which  followed  in 
Rio  Grande  were  employed  in  steady  growth.  A 
craze  for  cattle-raising  set  in,  and  the  plains  were  di- 
vided up  into  great  cstaiicias  which  were  distributed 


OLD    RANCH    IN    RIO    GRANDE, 


among  the  governor's  favourites  or  those  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  during  the  war.  Substan- 
tially the  entire  population  engaged  in  the  cattle 
business.  The  Rio  Grandenses  and  their  cattle 
multiplied  so  rapidly  that  they  spread  out  over  the 
western  part  of  the  state,  which  was  still  Spanish,  and 
to  the  south.  In  1780  the  curing  of  beef  by  drying 
and  salting  was  introduced,  which  permitted  its  ship- 
ment, and  afforded  a  stable  market. 


THE  ETGHTEEN-Tff  CENTURY 


391 


After  the  great  gold  discoveries  in  Minas  during 
the  late  years  of  the  seventeenth  and  early  years  of 
the  eighteenth  centuries,  the  prospectors  ranged 
north  from  Sahara  along  the  great  Backbone  Mount- 
ains, finding  washings  at  many  places  in  North 
Minas  and  Bahia.      By  1740  the  fields  in  Bahia  were 


■/ 


WASHING   DIAMONDS. 


producing  fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand  ounces  a  year. 
As  early  as  1718  an  expedition  had  penetrated  fif- 
teen hundred  miles  to  the  west  and  discovered  good 
placers  on  the  plateau  where  the  headwaters  of  the 
Madeira  and  the  Paraguay  intertwine.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  Cuyaba  and  the  state  of  Matto 
Grosso.      In  ten  years  a  million  five  hundred  thous- 


392  BRAZIL 

and  ounces  were  taken  out  from  these  diggings.  A 
little  later  still  other  fields  were  discovered  farther 
west  on  the  Madeira  watershed. 

The  miners  at  the  gold  camp  of  Tijuca  in  North 
Minas  had  noticed  some  curious  little  shining  stones 
in  the  bottom  of  their  pans  and  thought  them  so 
pretty  that  they  used  them  for  counters  in  games. 
Soon  a  wandering  friar  who  had  been  in  India  recog- 
nised them  as  diamonds.  This  occurred  in  1729, 
and  the  field  thus  opened  up  supplied  the  world 
with  diamonds  until  the  discovery  of  Kimberley. 
In  the  years  from  1730  to  1770  five  million  carats 
were  taken  from  the  original  Diamantina  district, 
and  the  deposits  are  still  second  in  productiveness 
only  to  those  of  South  Africa.  The  diamond  region 
was  at  once  declared  Crown  property  and  a  dead- 
line drawn  around  it  which  none  except  officials 
were  allowed  to  cross. 

In  1716  an  exploring  expedition  ascended  the 
Madeira,  and  in  the  years  following  the  Tocantins, 
the  Araguaya,  the  Rio  Negro,  and  the  principal 
tributaries  of  the  Upper  Amazon  were  navigated. 
The  Jesuit  settlements  in  the  Amazon  valley  con- 
tinued to  flourish.  While  the  interior  and  the  South 
were  expanding  rapidly,  the  coast  provinces  were 
relatively  declining.  The  growing  competition  of 
the  West  Indies  reduced  the  price  of  sugar.  Dur- 
ing the  seventeenth  century  Brazil  had  furnished  the 
bulk  of  European  sugar  consumption,  selling  her 
product  at  non-competitive  prices.  But  the  growth 
of  the  English  and  Dutch  colonial  empires  brought 
into  the  field  competitors  who  possessed  as  good  a 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  393 

climate  and  soil  and  enjoyed  the  inestimable  advant- 
age of  better  government.  Portugal's  vicious  and 
narrow-minded  colonial  system  was  not  changed 
until  Brazil's  competitors  had  so  far  passed  her  that 
she  has  never  since  been  able  to  make  up  lost 
ground. 

The  wealth  from  mines  and  taxes  that  Brazil 
poured  into  the  Portuguese  treasury  was  squandered 
by  the  dissipated  bigot,  John  V.  When  he  died  in 
1750  he  left  Portugal  in  a  bad  way,  and  though  Bra- 
zil had  managed  to  grow  in  spite  of  mismanagement, 
the  outlook  was  discouraging.  The  Spaniards  were 
threatening  the  new  settlements  in  the  South ;  Sao 
Paulo  had  been  depopulated  by  the  migration  to  the 
mines ;  Bahia's  and  Pernambuco's  sugar  and  tobacco 
industries  were  decadent ;  in  Ceara  and  Piauhy  the 
golden  days  of  the  cattle  business  had  passed ;  Ma- 
ranhao  and  Para  had  stopped  short  in  their  develop- 
ment, and  their  spread  into  the  interior  had  been  cut 
off  by  the  Jesuits. 

Contemporary  documents  prove  the  horrible  cor- 
ruption. From  ministers  of  State  down  to  the 
humblest  subordinate  every  official  had  his  share  in 
the  pickings.  The  farmers  of  the  revenues  openly 
paid  bribes  and  might  exact  what  they  pleased  from 
the  taxpayers.  All  trade  except  that  with  Portugal 
was  forbidden,  and  this  was  hampered  in  a  hundred 
ways.  Salt,  wine,  soap,  rum,  tobacco,  olive  oil,  and 
hides  were  monopolies.  All  legal  transactions  were 
burdened  with  heavy  fees ;  slaves  paid  so  much  a 
head ;  every  river  on  a  road  was  the  occasion  for  a 
new  toll ;  the  exercise  of  professions  and  trades  was 


394  BRAZIL 

forbidden  except  on  the  payment  of  heavy  fees ; 
anything  that  could  compete  with  Portugal  was 
prohibited  altogether.  Taxation  shut  off  industrial 
enterprise  at  its  very  sources,  and  many  of  the  worst 
features  of  the  system  then  put  in  vogue  have  never 
been  discontinued. 

The  governors  and  military  commanders  inter- 
fered constantly  with  the  administration  of  justice 
in  favour  of  their  friends  and  favourites;  they  ac- 
cepted bribes  for  allowing  contraband  trade  and 
permitting  the  immigration  of  foreigners;  they  mis- 
appropriated the  funds  of  widows  and  orphans ;  they 
ignored  the  franchises  of  the  municipalities;  they 
imposed  unauthorised  taxes;  they  forced  loans  from 
suitors  having  claims  before  them ;  they  obliged  free 
men  to  work  without  pay;  they  forcibly  took  wives 
away  from  their  husbands;  they  impressed  the 
young  men  for  the  wars  on  the  Spanish  border, 
required  every  able-bodied  man  to  serve  in  the  mil- 
itia,and  commonly  practised  arbitrary  imprisonment. 
How  even  one  of  the  best  of  them  interfered  to  regu- 
late private  affairs  can  best  be  shown  by  his  own 
words : 

"  I  promoted  the  good  of  the  people  by  forcibly  com- 
pelling them  to  plant  maize  and  pulse,  and  threatening 
to  take  away  their  lands  altogether  if  they  did  not  culti- 
vate them  diligently;  I  required  the  militia  colonels  to 
make  exact  reports  about  this  matter  and  thus  brought 
about  a  great  increase  in  the  production  of  food  crops 
and  sugar.  I  called  the  militia  together  for  exercise  on 
Sundays  and  holidays,  days  which  otherwise  the  people 
would  have  spent  in  idleness  and  pleasure.     Many  have 


396  BRAZIL 

complained,  but  I  have  never  given  their  complaints  the 
slightest  attention,  having  always  followed  the  system  of 
taking  no  notice  whatever  of  the  people's  murmurs." 

He  describes  the  Brazilians  as  vain,  but  indolent 
and  easily  subdued;  robust  and  supporting  labour 
well,  but  inclined  to  an  inaction  from  which  only 
extreme  poverty  or  the  command  of  their  superiors 
could  rouse  them.  They  had  no  education,  for  the 
only  schools  were  a  few  Jesuit  seminaries,  and  no 
printing-press  existed.  They  were  licentious,  had 
no  aristocracy,  were  unaccuscomed  to  social  sub- 
ordination, and  would  obey  no  authority  except 
the  military. 

Underneath  the  surface  fermented  a  deep  disgust. 
Even  in  the  seaports  the  very  name  of  government 
was  hated,  and  in  the  interior  the  people  withdrew 
themselves  as  much  as  possible  from  contact  or  par- 
ticipation with  it.  A  dull  hatred  of  Portugal  and 
Portuguese  spread  among  all  classes  of  natives.  In 
much  of  the  country  the  only  law^  was  the  patriarchal 
influence  of  the  heads  of  the  landed  families,  who 
often  exercised  powers  of  life  and  death.  Instances 
are  on  record  where  fathers  ordered  their  sons  to  kill 
their  own  sisters  when  the  latter  had  dishonoured 
the  family  name. 

With  the  death  of  John  V.  in  1750  the  great  Mar- 
quis of  Pombal  became  prime  minister.  The  enorm- 
ous energy  and  activity  of  this  remarkable  man 
revolutionised  the  administration  of  Portugal  and 
Brazil.  Official  corruption  was  severely  punished; 
order  replaced  confusion  ;  agriculture,  industry,  and 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  39/ 

commerce  were  protected  and  encouraged.  In  spite 
of  the  threatened  exhaustion  of  the  placers  mining 
flourished.  Maranhao  and  Para  took  a  new  start; 
the  worst  monopolies  were  abolished;  the  price  of 
sugar  rose  with  the  great  colonial  wars  and  the 
adoption  of  reasonable  regulations.  Wealth  and 
revenues  increased  apace  and  peace  and  security 
were  self-guarded.  When  Pombal  fell,  after  twenty- 
seven  years  in  power,  Brazil's  population  had  risen 
to  two  millions;  Rio  was  a  city  of  fifty  thousand 
and  the  capital  had  been  transferred  there;  Bahia 
had  forty  thousand;  Minas  contained  four  hundred 
thousand  people;  the  yield  of  gold  was  four  hun- 
dred thousand  carats  yearly,  and  the  diamond  pro- 
duction one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  carats,  and, 
finally,  Santa  Catharina  and  Rio  Grande  had  been 
saved  from  the  Spaniards  and  settled.  Pombal  had 
made  short  work  of  the  Jesuits.  In  1755  he  took 
away  their  rights  over  their  Indians,  and  four  years 
later  issued  an  order  for  their  immediate  and  un- 
conditional expulsion  and  the  confiscation  of  their 
property. 

Pombal  had  no  favourites;  he  spared  no  indi- 
viduals and  no  classes  in  his  work  of  ruthlessly  con- 
centrating all  power  in  the  Crown.  But  he  built  a 
Frankenstein  of  which  he  himself  was  the  helpless 
victim  the  moment  his  old  master  died.  Unwit- 
tingly he  prepared  the  way  for  the  triumph  of  the 
ideas  of  the  French  Revolution  both  in  Portugal 
and  Brazil,  and  his  most  beneficent  measures  were 
the  most  fatal  to  the  permanence  of  his  despotic 
system.      Commercial  prosperity  gave  the  Brazilian 


398  BRAZIL 

people  resources;  the  impartial  administration  of 
law  gave  them  some  conceptions  of  civac  pride  and 
independence;  the  encouragement  of  education, 
small  as  it  was,  helped  start  an  intellectual  move- 
ment which  spread  over  the  wilds  of  Brazil  the 
liberal  principle  then  fermenting  in  Europe. 

Immediately  upon  his  fall  in  1777  the  Portuguese 
government  reverted  to  most  of  the  old  abuses,  but 
the  economic  impulse  did  not  at  once  die  out. 

Pombal  had  not  only  expelled  the  Jesuits,  but 
had  taken  effective  measures  against  enslaving  the 
Indians'.  The  latter  separated  themselves  from  the 
whites,  and  miscegenation  largely  decreased.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  importation  of  negro  slaves  had 
been  continued  on  a  large  scale  throughout  the 
eighteenth  century  and  the  proportion  of  blacks  in 
the  mining  and  sugar  districts  had  increased.  Inter- 
mixture with  negroes  was  stimulated  by  the  seclusion 
of  the  white  women.  The  young  men  often  took 
mistresses  from  among  the  slaves,  and  these  unions 
sometimes  subsisted  after  legitimate  marriage.  The 
system  of  double  mdiiagcs,  however,  decreased  as 
manners  became  more  liberal,  and  opportunities  for 
social  intercourse  between  the  sexes  increased. 

The  more  energetic  Brazilians  acquired  the  rudi- 
ments of- learning  in  the  Jesuit  schools,  and  a  few 
fortunate  youths  were  sent  to  the  University  at 
Coimbra  in  Portugal.  In  the  early  decades  of  the 
eighteenth  century  societies  for  the  discussion  of 
literary  and  scientific  questions  were  established  in 
Rio  and  Bahia.  In  the  centres  of  population  little 
groups  of  scholars  began  to  gather  who  surrepti- 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  399 

tiously  obtained  the  writings  of  French  and  English 
poh'tical  philosophers.  Suddenly,  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  century,  a  dazzling  literary  outburst  occurred. 
Its  seat  was  not  in  Rio,  the  political,  nor  Bahia, 
the  ecclesiastical  capital,  nor  yet  in  Pernambuco,  the 
cradle  of  the  nationality,  but  in  Ouro  Preto,  the 
chief  place  of  the  mining  province  of  Minas,  twenty 
days'  journey  on  muleback  from  the  coast,  and 
among  a  rude  and  unlettered  population.  Within  a 
few  years  appeared  six  of  the  foremost  poets  of  the 
Portuguese  language :  the  lyrics,  Gonzaga,  Claudio, 
Silva  Alvarengo,  and  Alvarengo  Peixoto,  and  the 
epics,  Basilio  da  Gama  and  Santa  Rita  Durao.  He 
who  writes  the  songs  of  a  people  rather  records  their 
history  than  influences  it.  The  writings  of  the  Minas 
lyric  poets  are  the  best  documents  extant  on  the 
character  of  the  Brazilians  of  the  colonial  period. 
They  clearly  reveal  that  culture  was  only  at  its  be- 
ginnings; that  patriotism  and  national  pride  were 
indefinite  and  shadowy ;  that  religion  was  neither 
dogmatic  nor  absorbing ;  that  polite  society  had  not 
come  into  being,  and  that  the  intellectual  element 
entered  little  into  the  relations  of  the  sexes. 

The  independence  of  the  United  States  suggested 
to  a  few  Brazilians  the  possibility  of  freeing  their 
country  from  Portugal.  In  1785  a  dozen  Brazilian 
students  at  Coimbra  formed  a  club  for  this  purpose, 
and  one  of  them  wrote  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  then 
Minister  to  France,  asking  American  aid.  Jefferson 
was  interested,  but  answered  that  nothing  could  be 
done  until  the  Brazilians  themselves  had  risen  in 
arms.     A  like  impulse  Wcis  working  in  the  minds  of 


400  BRAZIL 

the  poets  and  their  friends  at  Ouro  Preto.  A  child- 
Hke  conspiracy  was  formed  whose  object  was  to 
found  a  republic  with  San  John  d'El  Rei  as  capital 
and  Ouro  Preto  as  the  seat  of  a  university,  A  few 
practical  men  listened  to  the  plans  of  the  conspir- 
ators probably  with  a  view  of  turning  a  disturbance 
to  account  in  preventing  the  government  from  put- 
ting into  effect  an  obnoxious  gold  tax  then  being 
threatened.  Among  those  let  into  the  inner  circle 
was  a  young  sergeant  nicknamed  "Tiradentes. " 
He  undertook  the  task  of  fomenting  an  uprising 
among  the  troops,  but  before  anything  practical 
had  been  done  the  whole  thing  had  been  given 
away  to  the  authorities.  The  conspirators  were 
arrested  and  taken  to  Rio,  where  the  frightened 
governor  instituted  a  formal  and  elaborate  trial  and 
took  a  fearful  vengeance  upon  the  helpless  boys  and 
poets.  Poor  Tiradentes,  being  without  powerful 
connections,  was  hanged  and  quartered.  His  mem- 
ory is  now  revered  in  Brazil  as  that  of  the  first 
martyr  to  independence  and  the  precursor  of  the 
republic.  The  gentle  Claudio  hanged  himself  in 
prison  after  having  been  tortured  into  a  confession 
implicating  his  friends.  Gonzaga  and  Alvarengo, 
with  several  others,  were  banished  to  Africa. 

Republican  and  separatist  ideas  had,  however, 
made  no  headway  among  the  Brazilian  masses. 
Brazil's  independence  was  to  come  by  the  force  of 
circumstances  and  not  by  any  deliberate  national 
effort,  and  for  a  republic  she  was  destined  to  wait  a 
century  more. 


CHAPTER   XIII 


THE    PORTUGUESE   COURT   IN   RIO 

THE  political  development  of  colonial  Brazil  may 
be  divided  into  three  epochs.  First,  there  was 
the  confusion  of  early  colonisation,  the  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  establish  a  system  of  feudal  captaincies, 
the  struggles  against  the  Indians,  French,  and 
Jesuits,  and  the  search  for  a  solid  economic  founda- 
tion for  the  new  commonwealth.  On  the  whole, 
this  era  contained  the  promise  of  the  ultimate  de- 
velopment of  a  freer  governmental  system  than  that 
of  Portugal. 

Next  followed  the  Spanish  dynasty  and  the  wars 
against  the  Dutch.  Control  of  Brazil  by  the  home 
government  was  weakened,  and  the  colonists  learned 
their  own  military  power.  The  years  following  the 
expulsion  of  the  Dutch— 1655  to  1700 — were  the 
brightest  politically  in  Brazil's  colonial  history. 
The  municipalities,  governed  by  local  oligarchies  of 
landowners,  exercised  functions  not  contemplated 
by  the  Portuguese  code.  Though  the  military  gov- 
ernors were  continually  encroaching,  and  the  system 

was  imperfect,  it  was  in  essence  thoroughly  local. 

26 

401  ^ 


402  BRAZIL 

Its  fundamental  defect  was  the  want  of  co-operation 
between  the  towns. 

The  third  period  began  with  the  consolidation  of 
Portugal's  international  position  in  the  closing  years 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Once  secure  from 
foreign  attacks,  she  renewed  the  exploitation  of 
Brazil  with  redoubled  eagerness.  The  discovery  of 
the  mines  made  the  plunder  enormous.  At  first 
there  were  resistance  and  even  formidable  rebellions 
like  Beckman's  in  Maranhao,  of  the  mascates  in 
Pernambuco,  or  of  the  emboabas  in  Minas.  But 
the  civ^ic  vitality  of  the  people  was  not  great  enough 
to  sustain  any  continuous  and  effective  opposition. 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  municipalities 
were  already  at  the  mercy  of  the  military  governors, 
and  Brazil  was  governed  partly  by  petty  despots  and 
partly  by  numerous  feeble  local  bodies  who  were 
without  cohesion  or  power  to  resist  interference. 
Brazil  would  have  remained  a  dependency  of  Portu- 
gal during  an  indefinite  period  had  it  not  been  for  a 
series  of  events  which  arose  in  Europe  out  of  the 
French  Revolution. 

By  1807  England  was  the  only  power  which  still 
defied  Napoleon.  Portugal  had  been  Great  Britain's 
ally  for  a  century,  but  Napoleon  found  it  necessary 
to  have  command  of  Lisbon  and  Porto  in  order  to 
enforce  his  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees.  He  perempt- 
orily commanded  Portugal  to  give  up  her  English 
alliance.  The  pusillanimous  John,  ^\\o  had  been 
prince  regent  since  the  insanity  of  his  mother  in 
1792,  hesitated  and  shuffled,  seeking  to  put  off  the 
emperor  with  negotiations  and  evasions  and  a  show 


THE  PORTUGUESE    COURT  IM  RIO 


403 


of  hostility  to  England.  A  single  despatch  indicat- 
ing his  double  dealing  was  enough  for  Napoleon, 
who  promptly  made  an  agreement  with  Spain  for  the 
division  of  Portugal  and  ordered  Junot  to  march  on 
Lisbon.  The  people  were  ready  to  make  a  desperate 
resistance,   but  their  king  was  in  two  minds  each 


DOM    JOHN    VI. 
[From  an  old  woodcut.] 

day,  and  the  army  had  been  withdrawn  from  the 
frontier  to  bid  the  British  fleet  a  hypocritical  dcfi' 
ance.  John  shed  tears  over  his  unhappy  country, 
but  prepared  to  save  his  own  person  by  a  flight  to 
Rio.  Junot  had  passed  the  frontier  and  was  ad- 
vancing on  Lisbon  by  forced  marches.  The  Prince 
Regent  and  his  Court  huddled  their  movable  pro- 
perty on  board  the  men-of-war  lying  in  the  Tagus. 
Fifteen    thousand    persons,    including  most    of  the 


404  BRAZIL 

nobility,  and  fifty  millions  of  property  and  treasure 
were  embarked.  Junot's  advance  guard  arrived  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  on  the  27th  of  November, 
1807,  in  time  to  see  the  fleet  just  outside  and  bear- 
ing south  under  British  convoy. 

Six  weeks  later  the  exiles  caught  sight  of  the  coast 
of  Brazil,  destined  thereafter  to  be  the  principal  seat 
of  the  Portuguese  race.  The  Prince  Regent  dis- 
embarked at  Bahia,  where  the  people  received  him 
with  enthusiastic  demonstrations  of  loyalty  and  tried 
desperately  hard  to  induce  him  to  make  their  city 
his  capital.  He  adhered  to  the  original  plan,  and 
on  the  7th  of  March,  1808,  arrived  at  Rio,  where  he 
was  received  with  equal  cordiality.  No  conditions 
were  imposed  on  the  helpless  fugitives.  The  first 
acts  of  the  prince  regent  proved  that  the  removal 
would  be  of  inestimable  advantage  to  Brazil.  He 
promulgated  a  decree  opening  the  five  great  ports  to 
the  commerce  of  all  friendly  nations.  The  system 
of  seclusion  and  monopolies  fell  to  the  ground  at  a 
single  blow.  Other  decrees  removed  the  prohibi- 
tions on  manufacturing  and  on  trades.  Foreigners 
were  allowed  to  come  to  Brazil  either  for  travel 
or  residence,  and  were  guaranteed  personal  and 
property  rights;  a  national  bank  was  established; 
commercial  corporations  were  given  franchises;  a 
printing-press  was  set  up  ;  military  and  naval  schools 
and  a  medical  college  were  founded.  Foreigners 
were  encouraged  to  immigrate  and  that  improvement 
in  art,  industries,  civilisation,  and  manners  began 
which  can  only  result  from  the  daily  contact  of  dif- 
ferent types  of  humanity.      For  the  first  time  Brazil 


THE   PORTUGUESE   COURT  IN  RIO  405 

was  opened  to  scientific  investigation,  and  scholars, 
engineers,  and  artists  were  imported  to  aid  in  making 
its  resources  known.  Tiie  commercial  nations  lost 
no  time  in  trying  to  get  a  foothold  in  this  virgin 
market ;  they  sent  their  consuls  and  salesmen,  and 
within  a  few  months  importations,  principally  from 
Great  Britain,  far  exceeded  any  possible  demand. 

The  prince  regent  found  his  South  American 
empire  divided  into  eighteen  provinces.  These 
constitute  the  present  states  of  the  Brazilian  union 
— the  only  changes  having  been  the  separation  of 
Alagoas  from  Pernambuco  and  of  Parana  from  Sao 
Paulo,  besides  the  erection  of  the  city  of  Rio  into  a 
neutral  district.  Of  the  three  millions  of  people 
one-third  were  negro  slaves,  and  the  free  negroes  and 
mulattos  numbered  as  many  more.  The  propor- 
tion of  whites  in  the  whole  country  was  not  more 
than  a  fourth,  and  in  the  larger  coast  cities,  in  the 
sugar  districts,  and  the  mining  regions,  it  descended 
to  a  seventh  and  even  a  tenth.  Civilised  Indians 
were  most  numerous  in  Para  and  Amazonas,  and 
whites  predominated  most  in  the  extreme  South  and 
in  the  stock-raising  interior.  In  the  century  since, 
the  whites  have  increased  to  forty  per  cent,  and  the 
negroes  have  fallen  to  less  than  twenty-five,  in  spite 
of  the  large  slave  importation  in  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Sugar  was  still  the  great  staple. 
Exports  of  gold  and  precious  stones  had  fallen  with 
the  exhaustion  of  the  best  placers  late  in  the  pre- 
ceding century.  Tobacco  was  largely  produced, 
especially  in  Bahia,  and  Maranhao  and  Para  were 
centres  of  a  flourishing  cotton  trade.      Rice,  indigo, 


406  BRAZIL 

and  pepper  were  exported  on  a  considerable  scale, 
and  the  production  of  coffee  had  been  carried  from 
Para  to  Rio,  and  was  rapidly  increasing. 

The  people  of  the  interior  were  mostly  clothed  in 
coarse  cottons  manufactured  at  home;  probably 
nine-tenths  went  barefoot  and  lived  in  rude  houses 
without  ornamentation  and  conveniences.  The  slave 
system,  the  large  landed  estates,  the  want  of  divers- 
ification of  industry,  the  general  apathy,  the  ease  of 
maintaining  one's  self  in  the  mild  climate — all  these 
causes  co-operated  to  lessen  consuming  power  and 
to  diminish  Brazil's  value  as  a  market  for  imported 
merchandise. 

Great  estates,  many  of  them  owned  by  religious 
corporations,  were  the  rule.  Only  the  best  parts 
of  these  estates  were  cultivated.  Enclosures  were 
almost  unknown,  and  the  farm  buildings  were  dilap- 
idated. Though  next  to  sugar  the  chief  wealth, 
cattle  were  neglected,  breeds  were  not  kept  up,  and 
the  making  of  butter  was  so  little  understood  that 
it  was  worth  a  dollar  a  pound.  The  proprietors  of 
the  sugar  ranches  left  everything  to  their  slaves. 
Ploughs  were  unknown ;  lumber  was  sawed  by  hand ; 
water  power  was  rarely  used  for  any  purpose,  though 
so  abundant.  The  only  schools  were  a  few  in  the 
towns;  artificial  light  was  practically  unused;  the 
cities  were  dilapidated,  and  their  filthy  streets  were 
full  of  stagnant  water.  Horsemen  rode  on  the  side- 
walks in  the  centre  of  Rio  itself. 

Freight  was  brought  from  the  interior  on  mule- 
back  over  narrow  trails,  and  hardly  any  roads  for 
wheeled  vehicles  existed.     The  mountains  and  heav- 


THE  PORTUGUESE   COURT  IN  RIO  407 

ily  forested  coast  regions  were  extremely  difficult  to 
penetrate,  but  in  the  sparsely  forested  interior  the 
old  Indian  trails  furnished  facilities  for  constant  com- 
munication, which  was  astonishingly  rapid  consider- 
ing the  circumstances. 

The  people  were  very  hospitable;  to  receive  a 
guest  was  an  honour;  each  ranch  had  special  quar- 
ters for  travellers,  and  the  only  pay  the  stranger 
could  offer  was  to  tell  the  news.  Outside  the  ports 
no  foreigner  had  ever  been  seen,  and  the  first  Eng- 
lishman who  visited  Sao  Paulo  in  1809  was  as  much 
of  a  curiosity  as  an  Esquimau  would  be  to-day. 

During  John's  stay  in  Rio,  Brazil  was  little  in- 
volved in  foreign  difficulties.  In  1808  an  expedition 
was  sent  from  Para,  which  took  possession  of  Cay- 
enne, but  the  place  was  restored  to  the  French  in 
181 5.  In  the  south  the  breaking  out  of  the  Argent- 
ine revolution  in  18 10  was  a  temptation  for  the 
Prince  Regent  to  increase  Brazil's  territory.  After 
the  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards  by  the  populace  of 
Buenos  Aires,  the  Spanish  forces  in  Montevideo 
held  that  place  against  the  patriots  for  four  years. 
John  sent  an  army  into  Uruguay  in  181 1  nominally 
to  help  the  Spaniards,  but  he  had  to  withdraw  it 
because  of  British  pressure.  After  the  surrender  of 
Montevideo  by  the  Spaniards  a  civil  war  broke  out 
amongst  the  patriots  of  Uruguay  and  the  adjacent 
Argentine  provinces.  The  warring  factions  tres- 
passed on  the  territory  of  their  Brazilian  neighbours. 
John  determined  to  seize  the  coveted  north  bank  of 
the  Plate  for  himself.  In  181 5  the  celebrated  guer- 
rilla chief,    Artigas,   invaded    the    Seven    Missions, 


408  BRAZIL 

which  had  been  seized  in  1801,  and  throughout  that 
year  and  the  next  the  Rio  Grandenses  fought  des- 
perately to  expel  him.  Finally  Artigas  was  de- 
cisively defeated,  and  the  Portuguese  army  marched 
down  the  coast  and  entered  Montevideo  without 
opposition.  They  were  welcomed  by  the  factions 
opposed  to  Artigas,  but  the  Buenos  Aires  govern- 
ment protested  and  Artigas  kept  up  a  resistance  in 
the  interior  until  he  was  overthrown  by  rival  Ar- 
gentine chieftains.  From  1817  to  1821  Uruguay 
remained  in  the  military  occupation  of  Brazilian 
troops,  and  in  the  latter  year  it  was  formally  annexed 
under  the  title  of  the  Cisplatine  Province. 

Brazil  had  had  to  assume  the  burdens  as  well  as 
reap  the  advantages  of  being  an  independent  nation. 
The  whole  extravagant  government  with  its  swarm 
of  hangers-on,  who  had  bankrupted  both  nations 
together,  was  now  saddled  on  Brazil  alone.  John's 
advisers  regarded  liberal  principles  as  dangerous  to 
civil  order,  and  considered  all  French  and  North 
Americans  as  firebrands  whose  presence  in  Brazil 
might  start  the  flame  of  revolution.  The  United 
States  minister  was  treated  as  if  he  were  a  Jacobin 
agent,  and  American  ships  were  searched  for  Napo- 
leon's spies.  However,  the  removal  of  the  Court  to 
Rio  had  set  forces  in  motion  which  ultimately  trans- 
formed Brazil.  Free  ports  were  open  doors  for  ideas 
and  education  as  well  as  merchandise.  Free  manu- 
facturing and  immigration  diversified  industry  and 
spread  energetic  habits.  The  influx  of  so  many 
educated  Portuguese  and  the  introduction  of  the 
printing-press    stimulated    a    desire    for    instruction 


THE  PORTUGUESE   COURT  IN  RIO  409 

among  the  Brazilians.  Ambition  for  employment 
in  the  public  service,  the  road  to  which,  under  the 
Portuguese  system,  has  always  lain  through  the  gates 
of  a  university,  co-operated.  A  considerable  edu- 
cated class  began  to  be  formed,  though  the  intel- 
lectual movement  never  extended  into  the  body  of 
the  people.  Through  the  former  class  the  nation 
found  a  means  of  expression.  A  spirit  of  inquiry 
and  unrest  was  roused,  but  the  movement  was  intel- 
lectual rather  than  instinctive;  theoretical  rather 
than  practical;  from  the  top  down,  and  directed 
more  toward  revolutionising  the  central  government 
than  developing  local  administration. 

The  first  outbreak  on  Brazilian  soil  against  ab- 
solutism was  the  Pernambuco  revolution  of  1817. 
Five  lodges  of  Free  Masons  existed  in  the  city ; 
the  priests  themselves  were  most  earnest  preachers 
of  political  freedom ;  merchants  and  sugar-planters 
wanted  lower  taxes;  the  prosperity  of  the  sugar 
trade  had  made  the  people  self-confident.  A  con- 
spiracy was  formed  which  had  the  sympathy  of 
many  of  the  clergy  and  influential  citizens.  An  at- 
tempt to  arrest  the  principal  agitators  resulted  in  a 
riot ;  the  troops  were  mostly  Brazilian,  and  rose  in 
favour  of  their  compatriots,  and  the  populace  joined 
them.  The  governor  fled,  leaving  the  public  depart- 
ments, and  the  treasury  containing  a  million  dollars 
in  the  hands  of  the  revolutionists.  The  movement 
became  at  once  frankly  separatist  and  republican. 
A  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  named ;  the 
Portuguese  flags  were  torn  down ;  a  temporary 
constitution   proclaimed ;    a  printing  -  press   set   up 


4IO  BRAZIL 

to  publish  a  liberal  newspaper.  Messengers  were 
despatched  to  the  interior  and  to  the  neighbouring 
provinces  to  announce  the  overthrow  of  despotism 
and  to  invite  co-operation,  but  they  met  with  no  en- 
thusiastic reception.  Fear  of  the  aggressive  Jacob- 
inism of  the  city  of  Pernambuco  cooled  the  slave- 
owners and  conservatives,  and  the  dignitaries  on  the 
revolutionary  committee  were  shocked  by  the  im- 
petuosity of  their  radical  colleagues.  The  insurgents 
had  not  had  time  to  provide  themselves  with  arms, 
and  a  Portuguese  fleet  from  Bahia  quickly  blockaded 
the  port.  When  the  royal  troops  came  up  they 
found  the  interior  of  the  province  in  civil  war,  and 
the  radicals  were  soon  backed  into  the  city,  where  a 
short  siege  compelled  them  to  capitulate.  The  more 
aggressive  leaders  were  shot  by  court-martial  and  a 
military  government  was  set  up.  Hundreds  of  pris- 
oners were  carried  off  to  Bahia,  where  they  remained 
until  the  great  reaction  of  1821. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

INDEPENDENCE 

IN  1820  the  standard  of  revolt  was  raised  in  Cadiz 
against  the  Spanish  Bourbons,  who,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Holy  Alliance,  had  re-established  absolutism 
after  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  The  feeble  Ferdinand 
was  compelled  to  accept  a  liberal  constitution. 
When  the  news  reached  Lisbon  the  Regency,  acting 
there  for  King  John,  was  panic-stricken.  Commun- 
ication with  Spain  was  forbidden  and  word  sent  off 
post-haste  to  John  to  urge  his  immediate  return  to 
Portugal,  or  at  least  the  sending  of  his  eldest  son,  as 
the  only  means  of  pacifying  the  deep  dissatisfaction 
felt  because  of  the  absence  of  the  Court  and  govern- 
ment. In  Porto — always  the  centre  of  liberal  move- 
ments— a  formidable  conspiracy  was  formed  which 
included  the  leading  citizens  and  the  ofificers  of  the 
garrison,  and  in  August,  1820,  the  royal  authority 
was  overthrown  after  scarcely  a  show  of  resistance, 
and  a  provisional  junta  installed.  The  movement 
spread  over  the  northern  provinces  and  thence  to 
Lisbon,  where  a  junta  assumed  power  in  December. 
After  some  confusion  it  was  agreed  temporarily  to 

411 


412  BRAZIL 

adopt  the  Spanish  Constitution,  to  summon  the 
Cortes,  and  to  retain  the  Braganza  dynasty  as  con- 
stitutional monarchs. 

The  news  of  the  rising  in  Porto  spread  Hke  wild- 
fire through  the  Portuguese  possessions  beyond  sea. 
Madeira  and  the  Azores  immediately  installed  re- 
volutionary juntas,  and  some  of  the  Brazilian  pro- 
vinces could  not  wait  until  the  assembling  of  the 
Cortes  before  establishing  free  governments.  Among 
native  Brazilians  and  immigrated  Portuguese,  among 
soldiers  and  citizens  alike,  the  enthusiasm  for  a  con- 
stitution was  well-nigh  universal.  In  Para,  Pernam- 
buco,  and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  the  royal  governors 
were  dispossessed  by  the  united  soldiers  and  people, 
and  the  Spanish  Constitution  proclaimed  as  the  law 
of  the  land.  Rio,  however,  lay  quiet,  and  it  was 
not  until  February,  1821,  that  the  Bahia  garrison 
deposed  the  governor,  and  installed  a  provisional 
junta,  which,  protesting  allegiance  to  the  House  of 
Braganza,  proclaimed  the  Spanish  Constitution, 
nominated  deputies  to  the  Cortes,  and  promised  to 
adopt  whatever  definite  constitution  might  be  framed 
by  that  body. 

The  action  of  Bahia  was  decisive.  Throughout 
the  interior  it  met  with  approval.  That  John  could 
hope  for  no  support  from  Brazil  in  case  he  decided 
to  make  a  struggle  against  the  Portuguese  revolu- 
tionists, was  evident.  Reluctantly  he  issued  a  pro- 
clamation announcing  his  intention  to  send  Dom 
Pedro,  his  eldest  son,  to  treat  with  the  Cortes,  and 
he  promised  to  adopt  such  parts  of  the  new  consti- 
tution as  might  be  found  expedient  for  Brazil.     To 


INDEPENDENCE  4 1 3 

such  delay  native  Brazilians  and  the  Portuguese- 
born  were  alike  opposed.  In  Rio  the  troops  and 
people  arose,  demanding  an  unconditional  promise 
to  ratify  any  constitution  the  Cortes  might  adopt. 
On  the  26th  of  February  a  great  crowd  assembled 
in  the  streets,  and  while  the  cowardly  King  skulked 
in  his  suburban  palace,  the  Prince  Pedro  addressed 
the  people,  swearing  in  his  father's  name  and  his 
own  to  accept  unreservedly  the  expected  constitu- 
tion. The  multitude  insisted  on  marching  out  to  the 
King's  palace  to  show  their  enthusiastic  gratitude. 
Trembling  with  fear  John  was  forced  to  get  into  his 
carriage,  and  the  miserable  man  was  frightened  out 
of  his  wits  when  the  crowd  took  the  horses  out  to 
drag  him  with  their  own  hands.  He  fainted  away 
and,  when  he  recovered  his  senses,  sat  snivelling, 
protesting  between  his  sobs  his  willingness  to  agree 
to  anything,  and  sure  that  he  was  going  to  suffer  the 
fate  of  Louis  XVI. 

Thereafter  Dom  Pedro,  though  only  twenty-two 
years  old,  was  the  principal  figure  in  Brazil.  He 
resembled  his  passionate,  unrestrained,  and  un- 
scrupulous mother  rather  than  his  vacillating,  pusil- 
lanimous father.  He  had  grown  up  neglected  and 
uncontrolled  in  the  midst  of  his  parents'  quarrelling 
and  the  confusion  of  the  removal  to  Brazil,  receiving 
no  education  except  that  of  a  soldier,  and  hardly 
able  to  write  his  native  tongue  correctly.  He  was 
handsome,  brave,  wilful,  arrogant,  loved  riding  and 
driving,  was  eager  and  shameless  in  the  pursuit  of 
pleasure.  His  manners  were  frank  and  attractive 
and   he    was    active-minded,    quick   to   absorb    new 


DOM   PEDRO   1. 
(From  an  old  woodcut.] 


INDEPENDENCE  4 1 5 

impressions,  enterprising,  strong-willed,  loved  popul- 
arity, and  intensely  enjoyed  being  the  principal  dra- 
matic figure  in  any  crisis.  His  personal  courage  was 
unquestionable,  and  he  was  prompt  of  decision  in 
the  face  of  dangers  and  difficulties.  While  capable 
of  warm  friendships  and  with  strong  impulses  of  de- 
votion and  gratitude,  he  lacked  real  faithfulness. 
Between  him  and  his  father  little  love  and  no  sympa- 
thy existed.  Prior  to  the  events  of  1821  he  had  not 
been  admitted  to  the  councils  in  state  affairs,  and 
his  closest  friends  were  among  the  young  Portuguese 
officers,  who,  like  most  of  their  class,  sympathised 
with  the  constitutional  movement.  Pedro  was  a 
Free  Mason,  and  the  Liberal  opinions  advocated  in 
the  lodges  greatly  influenced  him.  To  Pedro,  there- 
fore,— young,  ardent,  popular,  holding  progressive 
notions,- — both  Brazilian  and  Portuguese  Liberals 
naturally  turned. 

Seeing  the  role  of  leader  and  ruler  of  Brazil  ready 
to  his  hand,  Pedro  favoured  the  departure  of  his 
father  for  Portugal.  A  meeting  of  the  Rio  electors, 
held  on  the  2 1st  of  April,  to  elect  members  to  the 
Cortes  suddenly  changed  into  a  tumult,  and  de- 
manded that  the  King  assent  to  the  Spanish  Consti- 
tution before  his  departure.  He  had  no  choice  but 
to  yield,  though  probably  neither  he  nor  the  popular 
leaders  had  ever  read  the  document.  The  demon- 
strations continuing,  Pedro  became  uneasy  lest  his 
father's  journey  should  be  delayed,  and  marched  his 
troops  into  the  square  and  cleared  the  people  out 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  This  audacious  move 
was  followed  by  general  stupefaction,  and  the  King 


41 6  BRAZIL 

quietly  escaped,  leaving  Pedro  as  regent.  As  his 
vessel  weighed  anchor  he  said  to  his  son:  "I  fear 
Brazil  before  long  will  separate  herself  from  Portu- 
gal ;  if  so,  rather  than  allow  the  crown  to  fall  to  some 
adventurer,  place  it  on  thy  own  head." 

The  grasping  policy  of  the  Portuguese  members 
of  the  Cortes  furnished  the  impulse  that  drove  the 
Brazilians  into  union  and  independence.  The  Cortes 
met  in  Lisbon,  and,  although  most  of  the  Brazilian 
delegates  had  not  arrived,  immediately  undertook 
to  pass  measures  touching  the  most  important  inter- 
ests of  the  younger  kingdom.  In  December,  1821, 
news  reached  Brazil  that  decrees  had  been  enacted 
requiring  the  prince  to  leave  Brazil,  abolishing  the 
appeal  courts  at  Rio,  creating  governors  who  were 
to  supersede  the  juntas  and  be  independent  of 
local  control,  and  sending  garrisons  to  the  prmcipal 
cities.  Tremendous  popular  excitement  followed. 
The  coupling  of  the  order  for  Pedro's  retirement 
with  the  provisions  for  the  enslavement  and  disin- 
tegration of  Brazil,  made  the  provinces  realise  that 
he  was  the  only  centre  around  which  they  could 
rally  for  effective  resistance.  A  cry  rose  up  from 
the  whole  country,  praying  Pedro  not  to  abandon 
them.  The  address  sent  by  the  provincial  junta  of 
Sao  Paulo  was  penned  by  the  hand  of  Jose  Bonifacio 
de  Andrada,  and  may  well  be  called  the  Brazilian 
declaration  of  independence. 

"  How  dare  these  Portuguese  deputies,  without  wait- 
ing for  the  Brazilian  members,  promulgate  laws  which 
affect  the  dearest  interests  of  this  realm?  How  dare 
fhey  dismember  Brazil  into  isolated  parts  possessing  no 


INDEPENDENCE  a^\J 

common  centre  of  strength  and  union?  How  dare  they 
deprive  your  Royal  Highness  of  the  Regency  with  which 
your  august  father,  our  Monarch,  had  invested  you? 
How  dare  they  deprive  Brazil  of  the  tribunals  instituted 
for  the  interpretation  and  modification  of  laws;  for  the 
general  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  of  finance, 
commerce,  and  so  many  institutions  of  public  utility? 
To  whom  are  the  unhappy  people  hereafter  to  address 
themselves  for  redress  touching  their  business  and 
judicial  interests  ?  " 

Jose  Bonifacio,  whose  voice  and  example,  more 
than  any  other  man's,  gave  expression  and  direction 
to  the  aspiration  for  independence,  belonged  to  the 
English  parliamentary  school  which  was  dominant 
then  in  liberal  thought.  The  elevation  of  the  young 
and  progressive  prince  to  an  independent  throne 
seemed  an  easy  method  of  establishing  constitutional 
government,  as  well  as  of  securing  Brazil's  autonomy. 
Pedro  did  not  hesitate  long  in  acceding  to  the  wish 
of  the  Brazilians.  On  January  9,  1822,  he  formally 
announced  that  he  would  remain  in  Brazil — thus  de- 
fying the  Portuguese  Cortes.  The  word  "  independ- 
ence" had  not  yet  been  employed,  and  there  was  a 
very  general  hope  that  the  Portuguese  would  listen 
to  reason  when  the  Brazilian  deputies  arrived  in  Lis- 
bon. The  only  active  resistance  to  Pedro  in  Brazil 
came  from  the  Portuguese  soldiers,  some  of  whom 
revolted  and  went  so  far  as  to  march  under  arms 
to  a  point  commanding  the  city  of  Rio,  but  their 
nerve  failed  them  in  face  of  the  immense  concourse 
of  citizens  who  were  preparing  to  fight. 

Pedro  threw  himself  unreservedly  into  the  hands 

VOL.    I. — 27. 


4i8 


BRAZIL 


of  the  patriots.  Jose  Bonifacio  was  made  Prime 
Minister,  and  measures  taken  to  re-establish  the 
control  of  the  central  over  the  provincial  govern- 


DOM    JOSE    i;nMK\Cl(i    HE    ANDRADA. 
[From  a  steel  print.] 


ments.  But  the  ruling  groups  in  the  various  capitals 
were  not  very  ready  to  surrender  their  authority. 
Pedro  called  a  council,  but  representatives  from  only 
four  provinces  responded.  Bahia  and  Pernambuco 
were  held  in  check  by  Portuguese  garrisons,  and 
other  provinces  hesitated  before  committing  them- 


INDEPENDENCE  419 

selves.  Meanwhile  the  Portuguese  majority  in  the 
Cortes  paid  no  attention  to  the  warnings  of  the 
Brazilian  members,  but  ruthlessly  pushed  forward 
the  measures  for  the  commercial  and  political  sub- 
jection of  Brazil.  Most  of  the  Brazilian  members 
withdrew,  while  a  squadron  was  sent  to  Rio  to 
escort  the  prince  back  to  Portugal.  On  May  13 
1822,  he  assumed  the  title  of  "Perpetual  Defender 
and  Protector  of  Brazil,"  and  from  this  to  a  formal 
declaration  of  independence  was  only  a  step.  In 
June  he  notified  the  Cortes  that  Brazil  must  have 
her  own  legislative  body,  and,  on  his  own  respons- 
ibility, issued  writs  for  a  constituent  assembly. 
The  Cortes  responded  by  re-enforcing  the  Bahia  gar- 
rison, and  the  Bahianos  retaliated  by  attacking  the 
Portuguese  troops.  The  Pernambucanos  expelled 
their  garrison  and  sent  promises  of  adhesion  to  the 
prince.  On  the  7th  of  September  Pedro  was  in  Sao 
Paulo,  and  there  received  despatches  telling  of  still 
more  violent  measures  taken  by  the  Cortes,  accom- 
panied by  letters  from  Jose  Bonifacio  urging  that 
the  opportunity  they  had  so  often  planned  for  to- 
gether had  at  last  arrived.  Pedro  reflected  but  a 
moment,  and  then,  dramatically  drawing  his  sword, 
cried,  "Independence  or  Death  !  "  Everything  had 
been  carefully  timed,  and  his  entrance  into  Rio  a 
few  days  later,  wearing  a  cockade  with  the  new  de- 
vice, was  greeted  with  enthusiasm.  On  the  12th  of 
October  he  was  solemnly  crowned  "Constitutional 
Emperor  of  Brazil,"  announcing  that  he  would  ac- 
cept the  constitution  to  be  drawn  up  by  the  ap- 
proaching constituent  assembly. 


420 


BRAZIL 


Prompt  and  efficient  measures  for  the  expulsion 
of  the  Portuguese  garrisons  from  Bahia,  Maranhao, 
Para,  and  Montevideo  were  taken.  The  militia  came 
forward  enthusiastically;  the  regular  forces  were 
rapidly  increased;  Lord  Cochrane,  the  celebrated 
free-lance  English  admiral,  was  placed  in  command 
of  a  fair-sized  fleet  which  sailed  at  once  for  Bahia, 
and,  defeating  the  ships  which  remained  faithful  to 
the  Portuguese  cause,  established  a  blockade  that 
soon  enabled  the  land  forces  besieging  the  city  to 
reduce  the  place.  At  Maranhao  Cochrane's  success 
was  still  easier;  Para  also  fell  without  resistance  at 
the  summons  of  one  of  his  captains;  and  the  news 
of  these  successes  was  followed  by  that  of  the  sur- 
render of  the  garrison  at  Montevideo.  Within  less 
than  a  year  from  the  declaration  of  independence 
not  a  hostile  Portuguese  soldier  remained  on  Brazil- 
ian soil. 


CHAPTER   XV 


REIGN   OF   PEDRO   I. 


INDEPENDENCE  was  the  result  of  a  plan  care- 
fully  arranged  by  Jost§  Bonifacio  and  his  Brazil- 
ian associates.  Pedro  had  declared  himself  emperor 
in  an  access  of  dramatic  enthusiasm.  He  wanted 
the  glory  of  founding  a  great  empire  and  he  loved 
to  think  of  his  name  as  that  of  the  first  legitimate 
monarch  who  was  really  self-abnegating  enough 
to  establish  constitutional  government  of  his  own 
free  will.  The  role  of  a  Washington,  with  the 
added  glory  of  unselfishly  resigning  absolute  power, 
appealed  to  his  boyish  vanity.  But  the  cold  fit 
came  on  when  he  undertook  to  perform  his  pro- 
mises. His  loud  protestations  of  constitutionalism 
turned  out  to  be  mere  windy  mouthings.  Though 
his  reign  largely  assisted  in  maintaining  Brazil's  ter- 
ritorial unity,  it  cut  off  the  promise  of  local  self- 
government  and  helped  bring  on  twenty  years  of 
bloody  revolts.  He  was  not  exactly  a  hypocrite; 
he  loved  to  hear  sonorous  periods  about  liberty  roll- 
ing out  of  his  mouth,  but  he  had  no  idea  of  what 
they  really  meant. 

421 


422  BRAZIL 

Jose  Bonifacio  and  his  brothers  remained  at  the 
head  of  affairs  when  independence  was  declared,  but, 
ardent  and  successful  as  the  older  Andrada  had  been 
in  that  movement,  he  proved  no  statesman,  and  had 
not  the  strength  to  oppose  his  wilful  young  master. 
Almost  immediately  the  Andradas  engaged  in  bitter 
quarrels  with  the  other  leaders  of  the  independence 
party,  and  summarily  banished  the  five  ablest  ad- 
vocates of  a  liberal  constitution.  They  used  their 
power  to  revenge  themselves  on  their  personal  ene- 
mies, their  secret  police  was  worse  than  anything 
John  had  maintained,  and  they  forcibly  suppressed 
the  newspapers  which  dared  criticise  their  acts. 
Pedro's  authority  was  accepted  slowly  outside  of 
Rio.  The  ties  binding  the  northern  provinces  to 
him  were  especially  feeble.  A  constituent  assem- 
bly had  been  summoned,  but  great  difificulty  was 
experienced  in  securing  a  full  representation.  Per- 
nambuco  and  the  neighbouring  provinces  hesitated 
long  before  consenting  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
it,  and  Para,  Maranhao,  and  Piauhy  were  never  re- 
presented. It  finally  met  in  May,  1823,  with  only 
fifty  out  of  the  one  hundred  members  in  their  seats. 
The  Emperor  opened  the  session  with  an  arrogant 
and  dictatorial  speech.  "I  promise  to  adopt  and 
defend  the  constitution  which  you  may  frame  if  it 
should  be  worthy  of  Brazil  and  myself.  We  need  a 
constitution  that  will  be  an  insurmountable  barrier 
against  any  invasion  of  the  imperial  prerogatives." 
Such  language  excited  an  unexpected  protest  even 
among  the  members  of  this  humble  and  inexperi- 
enced assembly.     Though  a  majority  were  magis- 


UMIGN  OF  PEDRO  I.  423 

trates,  they  were  not  without  a  sense  of  the  dignity 
of  their  functions  as  legislators,  and  were  eager  for 
liberty — a  liberty  interpreted  according  to  their  own 
undigested  theories. 

The  Andradas  bitterly  attacked  those  who  dared 
protest  against  the  Emperor's  language,  and  a  major- 
ity was  only  obtained  for  the  government  programme 
by  the  lavish  distribution  of  decorations.  Pedro  soon 
tired  of  the  Andradas  and  their  fiercely  anti-Portu- 
guese policy,  and  summarily  dismissed  them.  The 
disgraced  ministers  passed  at  once  into  the  most 
virulent  opposition,  and  they  inflamed  popular  pre- 
judice against  the  resident  Portuguese  and  aroused 
fears  that  the  Emperor  was  plotting  a  reunion  of 
Brazil  with  Portugal.  As  the  session  went  on,  the 
assembly  showed  a  more  independent  spirit,  and 
Pedro  became  more  and  more  irritated.  The  Brazil- 
ian newspapers  insulted  his  Portuguese  officers  and 
the  assembly  took  the  part  of  the  former.  In  No- 
vember matters  reached  a  crisis.  Pedro  drew  up  his 
troops  in  front  of  the  assembly's  meeting-house  and 
demanded  immediate  satisfaction  to  the  insulted 
ofificers  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Andradas.  The 
answer  was  a  brave  refusal,  but  against  his  cannon 
nothing  availed.  He  sent  up  an  order  for  an  in- 
stant and  unconditional  dissolution,  and,  arresting 
the  Andradas  and  other  Liberals  as  they  came  out 
of  the  building,  deported  them  on  board  ship  with- 
out the  formality  of  charge  or  trial. 

Pedro  ordered  a  paper  constitution  to  be  drawn 
up  by  his  ministers.  In  form  it  was  liberal,  but  he 
had  no  serious  intention  of  putting  it  in  force. 


424  BRAZIL 

Ev^en  in  Rio,  the  people  ignored  the  invitation  to 
give  their  formal  adhesion  to  this  delusive  document. 
A  show  of  acceptance  was  sought  to  be  obtained 
from  the  provinces  by  going  through  the  form  of 
submitting  it  to  the  municipal  councils.  These 
councils  were  then  close  corporations,  largely  self- 
elective,  and  dominated  by  the  bureaucratic  caste, 
but  even  so,  north  of  Bahia  they  paid  no  attention 
to  the  Emperor's  communication,  and  in  the  South 
some  membeis  had  to  be  imprisoned  before  their 
consent  could  be  extorted.  The  Emperor  swore  to 
the  constitution,  and  it  was  gravely  promulgated  as 
the  nation's  fundamental  law,  but  no  congress  was 
summoned,  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  government 
continued  a  pure  despotism  wherever  the  Emperor's 
power  extended.  The  press,  which  had  sprung  into 
existence  during  the  agitation  for  independence,  and 
which,  after  having  been  throttled  by  the  Andradas, 
had  partly  revived  during  the  session  of  the  consti- 
tuent assembly  was  now  definitely  suppressed. 
Taxes  were  levied  on  the  sole  authority  of  the 
monarch ;  laws  were  put  into  force  without  other 
sanction  than  his  will ;  citizens  were  arbitrarily  ban- 
ished, and  military  tribunals  condemned  civilians  to 
death  in  time  of  peace. 

We  can  never  know  the  extent  of  the  shock  felt 
by  the  Liberals  on  hearing  of  the  forcible  dissolution 
of  the  constituent  assembly.  In  Pernambuco  it  was 
one  of  the  stimulating  causes  of  a  rebellion.  In  that 
city  the  press  had  not  been  suppressed  and  the  spirit 
of  1817  was  still  alive.  A  strong  separatist  feeling 
existed,  and  when  the  junta  resigned,  the  popular 


REIGN  OF  PEDRO  I.  425 

choice  made  Carvalho  Paes,  who  had  been  engaged 
in  the  former  rebellion,  governor.  The  Emperor 
sent  up  his  own  man,  but  authorities  and  people  re- 
fused to  recognise  him.  An  open  breach  followed, 
and  Pedro,  with  his  usual  vigour,  undertook  to 
establish  his  dominion  over  the  hitherto  aloof  North. 

In  July,  1^24,  the  Pernambucanos  threw  down 
the  gauntlet  by  proclaiming  the  "Confederation  of 
the  Equator."  This  was  intended  to  be  a  federal 
republic  after  the  model  of  the  union  between  the 
provinces  of  Venezuela,  Colombia,  and  Ecuador. 
The  adhesion  of  Pernambuco,  Parahyba,  Rio  Grande 
do  Norte,  and  Ceara  could  be  counted  upon,  and 
that  of  Maranhao,  Para,  and  Bahia  was  hoped  for. 
Bahia,  however,  remained  apathetic,  and  that  city 
furnished  Pedro  a  convenient  base  for  his  operations. 
He  sent  Admiral  Cochrane  to  blockade  and  bombard 
Pernambuco,  while  an  army  marched  up  the  coast. 
Factional  civil  war  had  broken  out  in  the  interior  of 
the  revolted  provinces,  and  the  imperial  forces  were 
joined  by  Carvalho's  local  enemies.  The  patriots 
fought  desperately,  but  were  overwhelmed  before 
they  could  provide  themselves  with  arms  or  organise 
their  resistance.  The  city  had  to  surrender  on  the 
17th  of  September,  though  fighting  was  kept  up  for 
a  long  time  in  the  interior.  Cochrane  sailed  north, 
reducing  the  ports  one  by  one,  and  by  the  end  of 
the  year  the  serious  resistance  was  at  an  end. 

The  victorious  Emperor  punished  the  patriots 
with  ruthless  severity,  sending  many  of  the  leaders 
to  the  scaffold,  and  establishing  military  tribunals 
which  inaugurated  a  reign  of  terror.   An  Englishman 


426  BRAZIL 

named  Ratcliff  was  brought  to  Rio  and  hanged,  not 
so  much  for  his  part  in  the  insurrection  as  because 
he  had  once  offended  Pedro's  mother  in  Portugal. 
"She  offered  a  reward  for  his  head,"  said  the  Em- 
peror as  he  signed  the  death-warrant,  "but  now  she 
shall  have  it  for  nothing."  In  the  spring  of  1825  it 
seemed  as  if  Pedro  was  certain  to  establish  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  military  despotism  extending  from 
the  Amazon  to  the  Plate.  Before  the  Pernambuco 
insurrection  his  revenue  and  recruits  had  been  drawn 
solely  from  Rio  and  the  adjacent  provinces.  Now 
his  fleet  and  disciplined  army,  recruited  by  impress- 
ment and  concentrated  under  his  eye,  enabled  him 
to  get  revenue  from  all  the  ports  and  to  hold  the  pro- 
vinces in  check.  His  sea-power  and  his  possession 
of  the  purse-strings  gave  him  a  tremendous  advant- 
age. He  imported  Germans,  Swiss,  and  Irish  with 
a  view  to  forming  a  corps  of  janizaries.  All  Brazil 
seemed  submissive,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  had 
flamed  out  among  the  Brazilians  in  1821  and  1822 
had  died  down,  leaving  as  its  only  permanent  effect 
a  strong  sentiment  against  reunion  with  Portugal. 

Externally  his  position  seemed  secure.  He  was 
assured  of  Canning's  active  support  in  securing 
formal  recognition  as  an  independent  monarch; 
Portugal  was  helpless ;  though  his  application  for 
a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  had  been  refused 
by  Henry  Clay,  the  United  States  was  the  first  to 
recognise  Brazil's  independence;  even  the  Holy 
Alliance  had  little  objection  to  an  independent 
American  state  ruled  by  a  legitimate  monarch.  In 
the  summer  of  1825  a  treaty  of  peace  w  ^s  framed 


REIGN  OF  PEDRO  I.  427 

between  Portugal  and  Brazil  through  the  intermedia- 
tion of  England.  Independence  was  formally  recog- 
nised, but  Pedro  made  the  error  of  consenting  that 
his  father  should  take  the  honorary  title  of  Emperor 
of  Brazil,  and  by  a  secret  article  he  pledged  Brazil 
to  assume  ten  millions  of  the  Portuguese  debt, 
though  it  had  been  incurred  in  war  against  herself. 

In  March,  1825,  a  rebellion  against  Pedro  broke 
out  in  Uruguay,  and  the  Argentine  gauchos  swarmed 
over  the  border.  The  Brazilians  easily  held  the 
fortified  city  of  Montevideo,  but  the  Spanish-Ameri- 
cans were  successful  in  the  open  field,  and  after  six 
months  of  harassing  fighting  caught  the  imperial 
army  in  a  disadvantageous  position  and  cut  it  to 
pieces  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Sarandy.  The  Bue- 
nos Aires  government  at  once  gave  notice  that  it 
must  recognise  that  Uruguay  had  reunited  itself 
to  the  Argentine,  and  Pedro  responded  with  a 
declaration  of  war  and  a  blockade. 

The  preparations  for  war  involved  him  in  unpre- 
cedented expenditures,  which  piled  up  the  debt  al- 
ready accumulated  in  his  father's  time  and  added 
to  by  the  war  of  independence  and  the  suppression 
of  the  "Confederation  of  the  Equator."  He  de- 
cided to  call  together  the  representatives  of  the 
people  and  insist  that  they  bear  a  share  of  the  re- 
sponsibility. So  little  interest  was  taken  that  it 
was  hard  to  hold  the  elections,  and  the  members 
had  to  be  urged  to  present  themselves.  On  the 
3rd  of  May,  1826,  the  first  Brazilian  Congress  met. 
Intended  as  a  mere  instrument  to  furnish  supplies 
for  the  war,  and  meeting  with  the  fear  of  the  fate  of 


428  BRAZIL 

the  constituent  assembly  before  its  eyes,  it  hesitat- 
ingly began  the  work  of  parliamentary  government. 
Except  for  the  revolution  of  1889,  the  sessions  have 
never  since  been  interrupted. 

A  week  before  the  assembling  of  Congress  the 
news  reached  Brazil  that  King  John  was  dead.  Pe- 
dro was  the  eldest  son,  but  his  brother  Miguel  was 
a  candidate  for  the  vacant  throne.  Pedro  had  to 
make  an  immediate  choice  between  the  two  crowns. 
He  decided  to  keep  that  of  Brazil  and  to  transfer 
that  of'Portugal  to  his  daughter,  Maria  Gloria,  then 
a  child  seven  years  old.  He  tried  to  head  off  Miguel 
by  making  the  latter  regent  and  promising  that 
Maria  should  marry  him  as  soon  as  she  was  old 
enough,  while  he  tied  his  brother's  hands  by  pro- 
mulgating a  constitution  for  Portugal.  The  scheme 
failed  to  preserve  the  peace,  and  the  Portuguese 
absolutists,  supporting  Miguel,  and  the  constitu- 
tionalists, Maria  Gloria,  almost  immediately  became 
involved  in  a  civil  war.  During  the  latter  part  of 
Pedro's  reign  he  was  continually  preoccupied  with 
Portuguese  affairs  and  trying  to  promote  his  daugh- 
ter's fortunes  in  Europe. 

The  war  on  the  Plate  turned  out  difficult  and  dis- 
astrous. Notwithstanding  that  great  land  forces 
were  sent,  no  progress  was  made  toward  reducing 
Uruguay  to  obedience,  and  the  overwhelming  naval 
force  blockading  Buenos  Aires  was  harassed  b}'  a 
small  fleet  improvised  by  an  able  Irishman — Ad 
miral  Brown — in  the  Argentine  service.  East-sailing 
Baltimore  clippers  fitted  out  as  privateers  infested 
the  whole  Brazilian  coast,  often  venturing  in  sight 


kMtGN  OF  PEDRO  I.  429 

of  Rio  and  soon  sweeping  the  coasting  trade  out  of 
existence.  Fruitless  attempts  to  enforce  the  block- 
ade involved  Pedro  in  difficulties  with  neutral  pow- 
ers ;  Brazilian  merchants  were  disgusted  with  the 
war,  and  communication  between  the  provinces 
became  nearly  impossible. 

The  Brazilian  land  forces  in  Uruguay  were  in- 
creased to  twenty  thousand,  but  the  Argentines  un- 
der General  Carlos  Alvear  audaciously  averted  the 
danger  of  an  invasion  of  their  territory  by  planning 
and  effecting  an  inroad  into  Rio  Grande  itself.  The 
Brazilian  general  allowed  Alvear  to  slip  between  his 
main  body  and  Montevideo,  and  the  latter  pene- 
trated to  the  East,  sacked  the  important  town  of 
Bage,  and  was  off  to  the  North  with  the  whole 
Brazilian  army  in  hot  pursuit.  On  the  20th  of 
February,  1827,  the  Argentines  turned  and  attacked 
the  Brazilians  at  a  disadv^antage,  defeating  them 
with  great  loss.  In  this  battle  of  Ituzaingo  sixteen 
thousand  men  took  part,  and  the  armies  were  nearly 
equal  in  numbers.  The  Brazilians  escaped  without 
serious  pursuit,  while  the  Argentines  retired  at  their 
leisure,  assured  that  no  aggressive  operations  would 
soon  be  undertaken  against  them.  Pedro's  hope  of 
dominance  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Plate  was 
ended.  Naval  disasters  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
indefatigable  Brown  made  him  still  more  anxious  for 
peace.  Negotiations  were  begun  with  the  Argent- 
ine government  which  was  only  prevented  by  lack 
of  money  and  internal  factional  quarrels  from  under- 
taking an  aggressive  war  against  Brazilian  territory. 
Operations  were  kept  up  languidly  on  both  sides  for 


430  BRAZIL 

a  year,  and  finally  Pedro  in  1828  consented  to  a 
preliminary  treaty  by  which  he  relinquished  his 
sovereignty  over  Uruguay,  obtaining  in  return  Ar- 
gentine consent  that  it  be  erected  into  an  independ- 
ent country. 

The  first  session  of  the  Brazilian  Congress  had 
been  very  timid  and  voted  as  the  Emperor  desired. 
The  session  of  1827  was  not  so  respectful;  the  news 
of  Ituzaingo  had  made  him  seem  less  formidable. 
For  the  first  time  the  chamber  became  a  forum  for 
the  discussion  of  governmental  theories,  and  the 
voice  of  Vasconcellos,  the  great  champion  of  parlia- 
mentary government,  was  heard.  In  the  fall  of  1827 
independent  newspapers  began  to  make  their  ap- 
pearance and  Pedro  dared  not  interfere  with  them. 
The  tone  of  most  of  them  was  exaggerated,  but  in 
December  the  Aurora  Fhuninoise,  with  Evaristo  da 
Veiga  as  editor,  issued  its  first  number.  By  univer- 
sal consent  he  is  recognised  as  the  most  influential 
journalist  who  ever  wielded  a  pen  in  Brazil.  His 
profound  and  temperate  discussions  of  public  affairs 
gave  him  an  ascendency  over  opinion  which  can 
hardly  be  understood  in  countries  where  party  con- 
ventions and  set  speeches  give  opportunities  for 
authoritatively  outlining  policies. 

When  Congress  met  in  May,  1828,  the  Emperor 
and  his  government  had  completely  lost  prestige. 
The  public's  and  Chamber's  consciousness  of  their 
rights  and  their  power  had  made  a  distinct  advance. 
Vasconcellos  infused  into  the  debates  an  independent 
and  statesmanlike  spirit  not  unworthy  the  great 
popular  assemblies  of  the  most  advanced  countries. 


REIGN  OF  PEDRO  I. 


431 


The  youth  of  this  remarkable  man  had  been  passed 
in  pleasure-seeking,  but  his  election  to  Congress 
gave  him  an  object  in  life  commensurate  with  his 


i!,VAKl3rO    FERREIRA    DA    VEIGA. 
[From  a  steel  engraving.] 


great  abilities,  and  he  applied  himself  with  un- 
quenchable ardour  to  the  study  of  political  science. 
Corrupt  in  morals,  inordinate  in  ambition,  his  venal- 
ity notorious,  his  constitution  ruined  by  disease,  his 
skin  withered,  his  hair  grey,  and  his  appearance  that 


432  BRAZIL 

of  a  man  of  sixty,  though  he  was  but  thirty,  the 
spirit  within  rose  superior  to  all  physical  and  moral 
defects.  His  role  was  peculiarly  that  of  champion 
of  the  prerogatives  of  Congress.  By  his  side  was 
Padre  Feijo,  afterwards  regent — incorruptible  in 
morals  and  unyielding  in  will — the  champion  of 
federation  and  democracy,  and  the  earliest  Brazilian 
positivist. 

This  Chamber  of  1828  made  a  real  beginning 
toward  making  ministries  responsible  to  Congress, 
and  started  legal  and  administrative  reforms,  but 
the  Emperor  insisted  that  its  sole  attention  be  given 
to  increasing  taxes.  When  the  Chamber  definitely 
refused  in  1829  he  dissolved  it  in  the  hope  that  the 
next  might  prove  more  tractable.  This  act  de- 
stroyed the  last  remnants  of  Pedro's  popularity. 
From  that  moment  his  abdication  or  expulsion  was 
inevitable.  His  friends  tried  to  create  a  reaction 
by  organising  societies  in  favour  of  absolutism,  and 
governors  of  retrograde  principles  were  appointed, 
but  the  popular  irritation  against  him  because  he 
was  a  Portuguese  by  birth  and  sympathy  constantly 
grew.  Brazil  divided  into  two  parties  —  all  the 
Brazilians  belonged  to  one  and  only  the  resident 
Portuguese  to  the  other.  The  new  Chamber  was 
harder  to  manage  than  the  old  one.  The  Andradas 
had  returned  from  exile,  and  most  of  the  new  mem- 
bers were  bitterly  prejudiced  against  Pedro.  In  the 
midst  of  the  discontent  came  the  news  of  the  July 
revolution  in  Paris,  giving  the  liberal  propaganda  a 
tremendous  impetus.  The  assassination  of  a  news- 
paper   man    named    Badarp    in    November,    1830, 


REIGN  OF  PEDRO  I.  433 

aroused  popular  indignation  to  a  fearful  pitch. 
Pedro  made  a  last  effort  to  regain  his  popularity  by- 
making  a  journey  through  the  province  of  Minas. 
His  cold  reception  convinced  him  that  the  disaffec- 
tion was  not  merely  local,  and  he  returned  to  Rio  sick 
at  heart.  In  March,  1831,  disturbances  broke  out  in 
the  Rio  streets  between  the  radicals  and  the  Portu- 
guese. Vasconcellos  and  Feijo  were  absent,  but 
Evaristo  drew  up  a  manifesto  demanding  immediate 
reparation  for  the  outrages  committed  by  the  rioting 
Portuguese.  The  Emperor  tried  to  still  the  rising 
storm  by  dismissing  his  ministry,  but  the  rioting 
continued  and  he  suddenly  again  changed  front  and 
appointed  a  ministry  of  known  reactionary  prin- 
ciples. The  announcement  was  followed  on  the  7th 
of  April  by  the  assembling  of  a  mob,  among  whose 
members  were  professional  men,  public  employees, 
and  even  soldiers  and  deputies.  Pedro's  proclama- 
tion was  torn  from  the  messengers'  hands  and 
trampled  under  foot  beneath  the  windows  of  his 
palace.  The  troops  were  all  on  the  popular  side. 
A  committee  crowded  its  way  into  the  Emperor's 
presence,  but  he  would  yield  nothing  to  compulsion, 
saying  with  dignity:  "I  will  do  everything  for  the 
people,  but  nothing  by  the  people."  The  news  of 
the  desertion  of  the  very  troops  guarding  his  person 
he  received  with  equanimity,  but  the  populace 
showed  equal  stubbornness.  Throughout  the  night 
the  crowd  stuck  to  their  posts,  and  about  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  he  suddenly  drew  up  to  a  table  and, 
without  consulting  any  one,  wrote  out  an  uncondi- 
tional abdication  in  favour  of  his  infant  son.      The 

VOL.    1. — 28. 


434  BRAZIL 

ministers  of  France  and  Great  Britain  had  remained 
with  him  during  this  night  of  anxiety,  and  when 
the  morning  came  they  were  reluctant  to  accept  his 
abdication  as  final.  All  the  foreign  diplomats  ex- 
cept the  representatives  of  the  United  States  and 
Colombia  followed  him  on  board  the  British  war- 
ship, where  he  took  refuge.  They  wished  to  give 
him  their  moral  support  in  case  a  counter-revolution 
were  attempted. 

The  most  potent  cause  for  Pedro's  loss  of  popul- 
arity was  that  he  was  a  Portuguese.  He  offended 
the  self-love  of  a  jealous  people  in  a  hundred  ways 
by  favouring  his  Portuguese  friends.  Almost  as 
fatal  was  his  treatment  of  his  blameless  wife.  One 
mistress  after  another  succeeded  to  his  favours,  and 
he  acknowledged  and  ennobled  his  illegitimate 
children.  Most  of  his  concubines  did  not  hold  him 
long,  but  the  last,  who  was  said  to  be  of  English 
descent,  acquired  a  complete  ascendancy  over  him. 
He  publicly  installed  her  as  his  mistress ;  created  her 
a  marchioness ;  forced  the  Empress  to  accept  her  as 
a  lady-in-waiting  and  submit  to  ride  in  the  same  car- 
riage with  her.  The  court  attended  in  a  body  the 
baptism  of  her  child,  and  some  of  his  love  letters  to 
her  are  indescribable.  They  could  have  been  writ- 
ten only  by  a  degenerate.  In  the  fall  of  1826  the 
poor  Empress  was  enceinte  with  her  seventh  child 
in  nine  years,  and  while  in  this  condition  Pedro 
brutally  abused  her.  She  never  recovered  and  died 
in  the  most  fearful  agony.  Pedro  was  absent  look- 
ing after  the  war  in  the  Plate,  but  the  marchioness 
had  the  heartless  effrontery  to  demand  admittance 


REIGN  OF  PEDRO  /.  435 

to  the  sick-room,  and  Pedro  on  his  return  dismissed 
the  ministers  who  had  dared  to  approve  the  action 
of  the  official  who  refused  to  let  his  mistress  gloat 
over  the  tortured  deathbed  of  his  wife. 

Pedro  was  too  boyish,  talkative,  and  familiar  to 
maintain  an  ascendancy  over  such  a  people  as  the 
Brazilians.  At  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night  he 
was  to  be  seen  driving  furiously  about  the  streets, 
and  he  constantly  showed  himself  in  the  theatres. 
He  liked  to  drill  his  troops  himself,  and  frequently 
beat  the  soldiers  with  his  own  imperial  hand.  Once 
he  nearly  maimed  himself  striking  at  a  stupid  re- 
cruit with  his  sword,  and,  missing  the  blow,  catching 
his  own  foot.  On  another  occasion  he  almost  killed 
himself  and  two  members  of  his  family  by  overturn- 
ing his  carriage.  He  was  always  ready  to  explain 
to  any  mob  at  hand  his  reasons  for  his  official  pol- 
icy, and  was  too  fond  of  excitement  and  applause  to 
refrain  from  making  a  speech  whenever  he  had  a 
chance.  The  inmost  emotions  of  his  heart  were  too 
cheaply  exhibited  on  the  Rio  streets  for  the  populace 
to  have  much  respect  for  them.  He  was  a  belated 
knight-errant  with  a  decided  touch  of  the  demagogue. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE    REGENCY 


AFTER  Pedro's  expulsion  the  country  was  left 
in  a  very  insecure  situation.  In  Rio  the  Por- 
tuguese were  as  numerous  as  the  native  Brazil- 
ians. A  great  part  of  the  population  was  under 
arms  and  radicalism  and  revolution  were  in  the  air; 
but,  for  the  moment,  fear  of  the  Portuguese  and  of 
Pedro's  restoration  enabled  cool-headed,  conserva- 
tive leaders  to  maintain  peace.  The  members  of 
Congress  in  the  city  selected  a  provisional  regency. 
The  ministry,  whose  dismissal  had  been  the  occasion 
of  the  outbreak  against  Pedro,  returned  to  power 
and,  s6  far  as  Rio  was  concerned,  government  pro- 
ceeded without  interruption.  Within  a  few  weeks 
Congress  met  in  regular  session,  and  a  permanent 
regency  was  elected.  Bahia  had  revolted  and  ex- 
pelled the  pro-Portuguese  military  commander  even 
before  Pedro's  deposition  by  Rio.  When  the  news 
of  the  events  of  the  7th  of  April  reached  Pernam- 
buco  and  Para  the  troops  promptly  renounced  their 
commanders. 

In  Congress  grave  differences  of  opinion  appeared. 
436 


THE  REGENCY  437 

The  Brazilian  party  quickly  divided  into  two  factions 
— the  conservatives,  who  were  faithful  to  the  dynasty 
and  wanted  the  fewest  possible  changes,  and  the 
radicals.  The  former  had  stepped  into  control 
ahead  of  the  latter,  but  they  had  not  the  real  force 
of  the  country  behind  them.  There  was  a  growing 
demand  for  a  larger  measure  of  self-government  by 
the  provinces  and  for  sweeping  democratic  reforms. 

The  regency  had  no  real  prestige,  the  military 
soon  became  jealous  and  dissatisfied,  and  the  party 
in  favour  of  the  Emperor's  restoration  began  to  as- 
sume a  formidably  menacing  attitude.  In  July  Rio 
seemed  on  the  point  of  plunging  into  a  bloody 
and  desperate  civil  war.  The  Regency  called  upon 
Padre  Feijo,  the  great  patriot  priest  and  leader  of 
democratic  opinion,  and  gave  him  absolute  power  as 
minister  of  justice.  His  firm  measures  soon  sup- 
pressed the  disorders  in  Rio,  and  the  national  guard 
which  he  organised  among  the  better  classes  of  the 
people  held  the  revolting  regiments  in  check.  In 
the  provinces,  however,  the  local  authorities  often 
ignored  the  commands  of  the  gov^ernors  appointed 
by  the  regency;  ambitious  local  leaders  plotted  to 
turn  the  situation  to  their  personal  advantage ;  and 
the  soldiers  and  disorderly  elements  were  inflam- 
mable material  ready  to  their  hands. 

In  nearly  every  province  civil  wars  broke  out. 
The  typical  process  was  for  a  military  officer,  a 
national-guard  colonel,  or  any  other  person  w'ho 
had  acquired  local  prestige,  to  issue  a  pronuncia- 
mento  and  announce  the  establishment  of  a  liberal 
government  whose  scope  was  only  limited  by  the 


438  BRAZIL 

imagination  and  knowledge  of  constitutional  law 
possessed  by  the  writer  of  the  pronunciamento.  If 
the  municipal  authorities  resisted  they  were  expelled, 
and  creatures  of  the  head  of  the  insurrection  put  in 
their  places.  This  overturning  of  legally  existing 
authority  would  usually  be  resented  by  some  neigh- 
bouring oificial  or  some  rival  of  the  petty  dictator, 
and  a  confused  conflict  would  ensue  in  which  the 
rank  and  file  of  neither  side  would  have  a  very  clear 
conception  of  what  they  were  fighting  about,  al- 
though the  words  of  "  liberty  "  and  "  local  rights," 
"constitutionalism"  and  "union,"  were  overworked 
in  speeches  and  proclamations.  It  is  not  worth  while 
to  give  the  detailed  story  of  these  monotonous  and 
tedious  uprisings,  massacres,  encounters,  and  usurpa- 
tions, though  the  operations  often  rose  to  the  dignity 
of  campaigns  and  pitched  battles.  Hardly  a  province 
escaped.  In  Pernambuco  in  1831  the  soldiery 
sacked  the  city  and  the  people  avenged  themselves 
by  killing  three  hundred  and  banishing  the  rest. 
Next  year  another  military  revolt  broke  out  in  the 
same  city,  which  soon  became  an  insurrection  whose 
nominal  purpose  was  to  restore  the  Emperor,  and 
which  lasted  four  years.  Two  hundred  persons 
were  killed  in  Para  in  1831  during  a  single  night  of 
street  fighting.  A  bitter  little  civil  war  in  Maranhao 
lasted  all  through  the  winter  of  1831-32,  and  was 
only  put  down  by  a  general  sent  from  Rio.  In 
Ceara  the  partisans  of  the  Emperor  kept  the  province 
in  a  state  of  anarchy  for  several  months.  In  Minas 
Geraes  the  friends  of  Pedro  obtained  possession  of 
the  capital,  and  the  patriots  had  to  fight  hard  to  get 


THE  REGENCY  439 

the  better  of  them.  Though  most  of  these  insur- 
rections were  suppressed  by  the  people  of  the  state 
concerned,  disrespect  for  the  central  government 
was  increasing,  and  a  blind  and  jealous  hatred  of 
the  Portuguese  and  everything  foreign  grew  contin- 
uously. 

During  the  four  stormy  years  which  succeeded 
Pedro's  expulsion,  Congress  discussed  violently  the 
terms  of  the  constitutional  revision  which  all  saw 
to  be  inevitable.  Though  the  radical  elements  pre- 
dominated, the  conservatives  and  the  senate  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  about  a  compromise.  A  single 
regent  was  substituted  for  the  triple  system ;  he 
was  to  be  elected  by  universal  though  indirect  suf- 
frage ;  and,  most  important  of  all,  each  province 
was  given  its  own  assembly  with  power  to  levy 
taxes  and  conduct  most  of  the  affairs  of  local  govern- 
ment. The  conservatives  managed  to  preserve  the 
life  senate  and  the  nomination  of  the  provincial 
governors  by  the  central  government. 

The  party  in  favour  of  Pedro's  restoration  had 
been  gaining  ground.  The  Andradas,  always  in  the 
most  extreme  opposition  when  out  of  power,  went 
over  to  it,  and  the  conservatives  were  gravitating  in 
the  same  direction  when  Pedro's  own  death  in  1834 
put  an  end  to  the  movement.  He  died  at  a  happy 
moment  for  his  fame,— covered  with  the  laurels  he 
had  just  won  by  driving  out  his  usurping  and  ab- 
solutist brother,  Miguel,  and  by  using  that  oppor- 
tunity to  endow  Portugal  with  a  constitution.  By 
a  curious  irony  of  fate,  this  reckless  soldier  and 
descendant  of   a  hundred    absolute    kings   was  the 


440  BRA  ZIL 

instrumcat  through  which  constitutional  govern- 
ment was  given  to  both  branches  of  the  Portuguese 
race. 

The  statesman  who  had  proved  himself  most  near- 
ly master  of  the  situation  during  these  stormy 
years  was  Padre  Feij6.  He  represented  the  aver- 
age Brazilian — the  disinterested  and  honest  public. 
He  had  energy  and  intrepidity ;  his  eloquence  was 
peculiar  and  commanding;  his  advocacy  of  his  be- 
liefs was  uncompromising;  he  had  been  a  leader  in 
sustaining  liberal  ideas;  and  he  had  proven  his  prac- 
tical courage  and  capacity  in  putting  down  the 
counter-revolution  in  Rio.  He  naturally  became  a 
candidate  for  sole  regent  after  the  passage  of  the 
Acto  Addicional,  or  amendment  to  the  constitution. 
It  seemed  appropriate  that  to  him  should  be  en- 
trusted the  putting  into  force  of  the  law  which  was 
expected  to  change  Brazil  into  a  federation  of  de- 
mocracies united  under  a  constitutional  monarchy. 
Elected  after  a  close  contest,  he  took  office  in  the 
latter  part  of  1835,  sincerely  anxious  to  rule  well  and 
sustained  by  a  popular  love  and  confidence  such  as 
few  BraziHan  statesmen  have  enjoyed.  However, 
from  the  beginning  he  was  unable  to  count  on  the 
support  of  a  majority  of  the  Chamber.  He  was  not 
the  man  to  manage  by  adroit  manipulation  and  skil- 
ful distribution  of  patronage,  but  his  own  work  and 
that  of  Vasconcellos  had  borne  fruit,  and  the  popular 
branch  of  the  legislature  had  become  the  dominating 
political  force  in  the  Brazilian  system.  The  tide 
was  now  setting  toward  conservatism ;  the  heroic 
impulses  that  had  brought  about  the  revolution  of 


THE  REGENCY  44 1 

1831  had  lost  their  force;  the  nation's  temper  was 
cooled;  the  politicians  had  forgotten  their  fine 
enthusiasm  and  were  busily  engaged  in  personal 
intrigues. 

Feijd  inherited  from  the  former  regency  the  two 
most  formidable  revolutions  which  so  far  had  broken 
out — that  of  Vinagre  and  Malcher  in  Para,  and 
the  great  rebellion  in  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  He  was 
hardly  fitted  to  deal  with  such  a  complicated  situa- 
tion as  that  of  Brazil  in  1836.  He  himself  said:  "I 
am  a  man  to  break,  never  to  bend."  Though  he 
gave  the  officeholders  of  Brazil  an  object-lesson  in 
unblemished  integrity,  his  actions  were  often  harsh 
and  arbitrary.  When  on  the  floor  of  the  Chamber 
he  had  been  the  chief  exponent  of  democracy,  but 
as  chief  executive  he  rode  roughshod  over  his  in- 
feriors, refused  to  be  guided  by  others,  even  in 
matters  where  no  principle  was  involved,  and  proved 
that  he  had  the  true  Latin  tendency  to  centralise 
administration. 

Vasconcellos  soon  outgeneralled  Feijo.  A  dread 
of  innovation  was  spreading  among  the  landholding 
classes.  The  merchants  and  Portuguese  of  the  cities 
naturally  gravitated  away  from  the  radical  regent. 
The  opposition  majority  in  the  Chamber,  compactly 
organised  by  Vasconcellos's  skilful  management, 
was  encouraged,  feeling  that  it  was  backed  by  the 
mercantile  and  ofHce-holding  classes,  and  by  the 
persons  of  highest  intelligence  and  best  social  posi- 
tion. It  clung  together  with  a  cohesion  unusual  in 
South  America,  and  was  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  historical  parties  were  built  whose  names  are 


442  BRAZIL 

constantly  encountered  in  Brazilian  political  history 
for  the  next  fifty  years. 

For  two  years  Feijo  struggled  against  the  adverse 
conditions.  For  the  Para  revolution  he  found  a 
clever  and  faithful  general  in  Andrea,  and  managed 
to  keep  him  well  supplied  with  money  and 
troops,  so  that  a  vigorous  pursuit  of  the  guerrilla 
chiefs  resulted  in  their  capture  and  the  pacification 
of  the  province.  But  in  Rio  Grande  the  people 
were  too  strong  and  too  independent  to  be  reduced 
by  troops  sent  from  without,  and  Congress  hampered 
him  by  refusing  votes  of  credit.  The  revolution 
which  had  broken  out  there  three  months  before  he 
assumed  the  regency  had  been  occasioned  by  anti- 
Portuguese  feeling  and  the  unpopularity  of  the  gov- 
ernor. The  latter  was  obliged  to  flee  from  Porto 
Alegre  with  hardly  a  semblance  of  resistance.  At 
first  Feijo  wisely  limited  his  interference  to  the 
nomination  of  a  new  governor.  It  was  not  safe  to 
irritate  the  half-feudal  chiefs,  backed  by  their  bands 
of  gauchos  trained  in  constant  raids  over  the  Uru- 
guayan border  and  who  were  too  accustomed  to  see- 
ing revolutions  on  the  Spanish  side  to  hesitate  much 
about  undertaking  one  on  their  own  account.  But 
the  new  governor  was  ambitious  and  tried  to  take 
advantage  of  the  jealousies  among  the  gaucho  leaders 
to  make  himself  supreme.  He  got  some  of  the 
ablest  of  them  on  his  side,  but  the  others  were 
stimulated  into  more  determined  fighting.  The 
rebels  kept  the  field  in  formidable  numbers,  and 
among  their  able  partisan  chiefs  was  Giuseppe 
Garibaldi,   who  here  took  part  in  his  first  war  for 


THE  REGENCY  443 

freedom.  At  first  evil  fortune  followed  the  patriots, 
and  they  were  badly  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Fanfa, 
where  their  greatest  leader,  Bento  GotKjalves,  was 
captured  and  carried  to  Rio.  His  lieutenants  rallied 
again  and  declared  Rio  Grande  an  independent  re- 
public. 

Feij6  despatched  a  new  governor,  whose  oppres- 
sive measures  soon  brought  about  a  wholesale  de- 
sertion by  the  Rio  Grandenses,  who  had  hitherto 
supported  the  union  side.  By  the  middle  of  1837 
Rio  Grande  seemed  hopelessly  lost  to  Brazil,  and 
the  government  only  held  the  coast  towns. 

His  bad  management  of  affairs  in  Rio  Grande  was 
the  immediate  occasion  of  Feijo's  resignation  (Sep- 
tember, 1837).  The  victorious  conservative  majority 
immediately  stepped  into  power.  Bernardo  de  Vas- 
concellos  reaped  at  length  a  personal  reward  for  his 
years  of  labour  and  intrigue,  and  became  the  ruling 
force  in  the  Chamber,  and  Prime  Minister,  though  a 
wealthy  senator,  Araujo  Lima  by  name,  had  been 
elected  regent.  But  Vasconcellos  was  merely  the 
first  among  equals  and  held  his  power  only  so 
long  as  he  could  command  the  support  of  the  con- 
servative majority.  A  sort  of  oligarchy  grew  up 
which  directed  the  work  of  reaction  without  much 
more  regard  for  outside  opinion  than  Pedro  himself 
had  shown.  However,  Brazil  had  finally  entered 
upon  a  stage  of  government  which  in  form  was 
parliamentary  and  in  substance  was  partly  so.  It 
was  rather  the  parliamentarism  of  Walpole  than  of 
Gladstone ;  the  members  owed  their  seats  to  the  ad- 
ministration ;  they  were  a  sort  of  self-nominating  and 


444  BRAZIL 

self-renewing  body;  and  departmental  and  judicial 
administration  continued  in  much  the  same  old  way. 

The  great  task  before  the  conservative  regency 
was  to  undo  most  of  the  work  which  had  been 
wrought  by  the  federalist  and  democratic  movement 
of  the  early  30's.  The  amendments  to  the  con- 
stitution, known  as  the  Acto  Addicional,  had  ap- 
parently established  the  autonomy  of  the  provinces 
in  their  local  affairs.  If  these  amendments  had 
been  put  into  effect,  Brazil  would  have  become  a 
federated  state  like  Switzerland  or  the  United 
States.  The  conservatives  were  alarmed  at  the 
length  to  which  the  provincial  assemblies  were  al- 
ready going  in  managing  their  own  affairs,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  turning  the  country  back  on  the  road 
toward  centralisation  and  unification.  A  law  was 
passed  which  interpreted  the  Acto  Addicional  so  as 
nearly  to  destroy  provincial  autonomy.  The  pro- 
vincial assemblies  were  forbidden  to  interfere  with 
the  magistracy;  their  resolutions  could  be  vetoed 
by  the  governors  or  the  national  Congress;  their 
power  of  controlling  the  administration  of  justice  was 
taken  away.  They  became  little  more  than  advisory 
bodies  completely  under  the  dominance  of  governors 
appointed  from  Rio,  and  who  rarely  were  citizens  of 
the  states  they  ruled.  At  first  there  was  little  oppo- 
sition, and  the  regency  easily  suppressed  a  separatist 
movement  in  Bahia  which  proposed  to  establish  a 
republic  until  the  boy  emperor  should  come  of  age. 

The  reorganised  regency  was,  however,  weak. 
The  attitude  of  the  nation  was  merely  tolerant  and 
expectant.     The  war  in  Rio  Grande,  continued  and 


THE  REGENCY 


445 


the  attacks  of  the  Liberals  in  the  Chamber  increased 
in  force  and  effectiv^eness.  Ministers  began  to  change 
and  shift;  the  conviction  grew  that  the  conservative 


DONNA   JANUARIA.  , 

[From  a  steel  engraving.] 

oligarchy  would  not  long  rule  the  country.  Liberals 
and  conservatives  alike  inclined  to  the  idea  that  the 
best  thing  was  to  return  to  a  ruler  selected  from  the 
legitimate  royal  family.     According  to  the  constitu- 


446  BRAZIL 

tion  the  boy  emperor  would  not  become  of  age  until 
he  reached  eighteen,  in  1843.  If  the  constitution 
were  strictly  followed  the  country  would  have  to  be 
governed  for  years  by  a  hybrid  executive — a  regent 
who  was  neither  a  ruler  by  popular  choice  nor  yet 
a  monarch  by  blood  and  succession.  Many  advoc- 
ated declaring  the  Emperor's  eldest  sister,  Januaria, 
regent,  though  the  young  lady  protested  tearfully 
against  being  turned  into  such  a  thing  as  she 
imagined  a  regent  to  be.  More  insisted  that  the 
Emperor^  in  spite  of  his  tender  years,  immediately 
assume  the  functions  of  supreme  ruler. 

The  politicians  in  opposition,  with  the  two  surviv- 
ing Andra(ias  at  their  head,  took  advantage  of  this 
feeling.  Bills  were  introduced  in  Congress  authoris- 
ing the  Emperor  to  take  the  reins  at  once.  The 
regent's  ministers  did  not  dare  directly  oppose  these 
measures;  they  only  tried  to  compromise  as  long 
as  possible.  But  difficulties  and  dissatisfaction  in- 
creased;  a  formidable  revolution  broke  out  in  Mar- 
anhao ;  the  R,io  Grandenses  invaded  Santa  Catharina. 
It  was  evident  that  the  regency  could  not  continue 
to  hold  the  clashing  provinces  together.  While  the 
intellectual  conviction  had  never  been  stronger  that 
union  between  the  provinces  was  an  advantage,  cir- 
cumstances were  increasing  dissatisfaction  and  in- 
subordination in  every  part  of  the  empire. 

The  contest  in  Congress  over  the  Emperor's  ma- 
jority assumed  an  acute  phase  as  soon  as  the  session 
of  1840  began.  The  ministry  in  desperation  sought 
to  prevent  immediate  action  by  calling  Vasconcellos 
back  to  power  and  proroguing  the  session.     The  an- 


THE  REGENCY  447 

nouncement  of  this  step  was  followed  by  an  outburst 
that  left  no  recourse  but  a  submission  of  the  matter 
in  dispute  to  the  boy  emperor  himself.  The  opposi- 
tion deputies  went  out  in  a  body  to  see  him,  and 
begged  him  to  consent  to  assume  his  imperial  func- 


DOM    PEDRO    n. 
[From  a  steel  engraving.] 


tions  at  once.  Though  entirely  unauthorised  by  the 
constitution,  no  one  made  serious  objection  to  such 
a  revolutionary  way  of  proceeding.  The  young 
Pedro  accepted  with  dignity  and  confidence;  the 
city  and  country  went  wild  with  delight,  and  on  the 
23rd  of  July,  1840,  Congress  assembled  in  a  sort  of 


448  BRAZIL 

extraordinary  constituent  assembly  and  without  a 
dissenting  voice  proclaimed  him  of  age. 

Although  the  ten  years  of  the  regency  were  the 
stormiest  in  Brazilian  history,  they  were  in  many 
respects  the  most  fruitful.  The  nation  was  serving 
an  apprenticeship  in  governing  itself;  its  public  men 
were  being  trained ;  the  value  of  self-restraint  and  of 
peace  were  being  learned.  The  freedom  of  the  press 
and  of  parliament  was  definitely  established.  The 
production  of  literature  began ;  professional  schools 
were  put  on  a  footing  not  unworthy  of  any  civilised 
country  ;  learned  societies  were  organised  ;  the  study 
of  the  resources  of  the  country  was  continued  ;  social 
intercourse  developed;  communication  between  the 
provinces  increased ;  the  study  of  foreign  languages 
became  general  among  the  polite  classes. 

Industrially,  too,  the  period  was  one  of  germina- 
tion of  those  seeds  from  which  subsequently  grew 
the  prosperity  of  the  country.  Though  foreign 
commerce  increased  little  during  the  civil  wars,  the 
cultivation  of  coffee  assumed  large  proportions, 
and  while  sugar  and  cotton,  food  crops  and  tobacco, 
suffered  much  from  foreign  competition  and  civil 
disturbances,  nevertheless  they  held  up  pretty  well. 
The  confusion  of  the  times  and  the  weakness  of  the 
central  government  prevented  any  great  improve- 
ment in  the  public  finances,  but  neither  taxes  nor 
debt  were  piled  up  as  they  had  been  under  Pedro  L 
Though  the  efficiency  and  honesty  of  the  administra- 
tion left  much  to  be  desired,  the  small  resources  of 
which  the  central  government  disposed  brought  about 
an  era  of  comparative  economy  in  the  departments. 


CHAPTER   XVII 


PEDRO   II. 


THE  so-called  Liberals  went  into  power  on  the 
declaration  of  the  Emperor's  majority,  and 
proved  to  be  more  tyrannical  and  centralising  than 
the  Conserv^atives  whom  they  had  replaced.  Pro- 
vincial governors  were  dismissed  wholesale  solely  for 
factional  advantage.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  was 
dissolved  and  a  new  one  elected  in  the  fall  of  1840, 
and  in  the  choice  of  deputies  the  Andradas  inter- 
fered, securing  an  overwhelming  Liberal  majority. 

In  reality,  however,  the  Andradas  had  not  won 
the  confidence  of  the  ruling  coteries,  nor  of  the  boy 
emperor.  When  they  quarrelled  with  Aureliano, 
one  of  their  colleagues,  the  matter  was  submitted  to 
Pedro,  who  was  then  only  fifteen  and  a  half  years 
old.  His  decision  was  against  the  Andradas.  They 
resigned,  and  from  that  moment  until  his  mental 
powers  began  to  fail  Pedro  H.  was  the  supreme 
authority  in  the  State.  He  governed  parliamentarily 
as  far  as  he  deemed  it  possible,  left  most  matters  to 
his  Cabinets,  kept  out  of  view,  and  was  careful  to 
ascertain  public  opinion.     None  the  less  he  was  the 

449 


VOL.  I. — 29. 


450  BRAZIL 

final  arbiter  in  matters  of  the  first  importance.  In 
the  politics  of  the  next  fifty  years  he  was  incompar- 
ably the  most  potent  Brazilian. 

Happily  for  his  country  he  resembled  his  mother 
rather  than  his  father.  Studious  and  laborious, 
books  were  his  great  occupation.  He  was  an  inde- 
fatigable and  omnivorous  reader,  and,  though  espe- 
cially fond  of  history  and  sociology,  few  subjects 
and  few  literatures  escaped  him.  No  fact  ever  failed 
to  interest  him,  but  his  mind  was  too  discursive  and 
his  studies  too  widespread  and  too  superficial  to  give 
him  a  store  of  sound  and  well-digested  knowledge. 
Morally  he  was  a  complete  contrast  to  his  dissipated 
father.  He  was  a  monarch  of  the  conscientious  nine- 
teenth-centur}'  type.  He  as  a  little  boy  had  been 
obedient  to  the  priests  and  ladies  to  whom  his  rear- 
ing had  been  entrusted,  but  they  retained  no  great 
influence  over  him.  Though  thoroughly  respectful 
toward  religion  he  was  not  especially  devout,  and 
his  political  ideas  were  gathered  rather  from  his  own 
reading  than  from  direct  teaching.  As  a  father  and 
husband  he  was  good  and  kind,  and  conscientiously 
devoted  all  his  energies  to  the  performance  of  his 
duties,  public  and  private.  His  first  act  on  assum- 
ing power  was  to  forbid  the  people  of  his  house- 
hold to  ask  any  favours  of  him  in  regard  to  public 
affairs. 

His  manners  were  democratic.  Thoucih  tall  and 
handsome  he  cared  little  for  his  personal  appearance; 
his  clothing  was  ill-fitting  and  ill  cared  for;  he  drove 
about  in  rickety  old  carriages  with  absurd-looking 
horses;    he   kept  no  Court   properly  so   called;    he 


PEDRO  II.  451 

would  gobble  through  his  state  dinners  in  a  hurry  to 
get  back  to  his  books ;  he  would  call  Cabinet  meet- 
ings at  inconvenient  hours  of  the  night  if  an  idea 
struck  him.  Though  his  subjects  loved  and  trusted 
him,  the  general  tendency  was  rather  to  laugh  at  his 
peculiarities.  It  could  hardly  be  said  that  people 
personally  stood  much  in  awe  of  him.  At  the  same 
time,  when  action  was  to  be  taken  in  a  crisis,  he 
could  be  as  arbitrary  as  any  czar.  He  took  no  pride 
in  imposing  his  will  over  that  of  others,  and  his 
manners  and  methods  were  always  mild  and  gentle. 
Some  believe  that  he  deliberately  assumed  careless, 
democratic  ways,  thinking  them  best  adapted  to 
maintaining  himself  in  power,  and  it  is  certain  that 
he  showed  little  anxiety  about  his  position  and 
seemed  to  value  it  slightly.  Intellectually  restless 
though  he  was,  his  judgment  was  sound  enough  to 
enable  him  soon  to  foresee  that  the  inevitable  tend- 
ency was  toward  a  republic,  and  in  the  latter  part 
of  his  life  he  often  said  that  he  was  the  best  republi- 
can in  the  empire,  and  that  his  main  function  was  to 
prepare  the  way  for  it.  At  bottom  he  was  not  a 
man  of  strong  passions  or  intense  will,  but  was  rather 
a  mild-mannered  and  philosophic  opportunist  whose 
greatest  merit  was  that  he  loved  peace,  and  whose 
greatest  achievement  was  that  Brazil  remained  inter- 
nally quiet  during  his  long  reign. 

With  the  fall  of  the  Andradas  the  Conservative 
party  returned  to  power,  and  a  reactionary  parlia- 
mentary government,  with  the  Emperor  as  a  sort 
of  regulating  and  controlling  dciis  ex  macJiiiia,  was 
definitely   installed.     Great  things  were   hoped  for 


452  BRAZIL 

from  the  new  regime,  and  loyalty  to  the  young  Em-= 
peror  was  enthusiastic,  sincere,  and  universal.  How- 
ever, the  internal  disturbances  were  too  serious  to 
be  calmed  in  a  day.  The  revolution  in  Maranhao, 
which  had  been  bequeathed  by  the  Regency,  was 
formidable.  In  pacifying  it  a  general  named  Luiz 
Lima  e  Silva  first  came  to  the  front,  and  was  named 
Baron  of  Caxias  for  his  services.  This  officer  was 
less  than  forty  years  of  age,  and  came  of  a  family 
of  soldiers,  one  of  whom  had  been  the  military 
member  of  the  first  Regency.  He  had  served  in  all 
the  wars' and  most  of  the  insurrections  since  1822, 
and  had  always  shown  solid  though  not  especially 
brilliant  qualities.  He  was  a  good  manager  of  men, 
and  a  steady,  pertinacious,  and  shrewd  negotiator. 
His  detractors  accuse  him  of  unscrupulous  bribery, 
and  it  is  certain  that  he  was  extraordinarily  successful 
in  sowing  discord  among  his  opponents.  He  obeyed 
the  orders  of  his  superiors  and  was  faithful  to  the 
Emperor.  Probably  the  limitations  of  his  character 
were  as  important  as  his  affirmative  abilities  in 
enabling  him  to  grow  into  the  gieat  military  con- 
solidator  of  the  distracted  empire.  His  work  in  the 
first  years  of  the  forties  was  hardly  inferior  in  im- 
portance to  that  of  the  Emperor  himself. 

The  return  to  power  of  the  Conservatives  in  1841 
caused  great  dissatisfaction  among  the  displaced 
Liberals  and  the  advocates  of  provincial  autonomy. 
The  Conservatives  seemed  to  have  captured  the 
young  emperor,  and  the  Liberals  began  to  insist  on 
the  application  to  Brazil  of  the  English  maxim, 
"The  king  reigns  but  does  not  govern."     In  1842  a 


PEDRO  II,  453 

revolution  broke  out  in  Sorocaba,  the  home  *of 
Padre  Feijo,  in  the  state  of  Sao  Paulo.  Ihe  trouble 
was  aggravated  by  the  harsh  measures  taken  by  the 
Conservative  governor  to  suppress  it,  and  soon  spread 
to  various  points  in  the  province  and  thence  to  Minas 
Geraes.  The  revolutionists  announced  that  their 
objects  were  to  free  the  Emperor  from  the  coercion 


BARON    OF   CAXIAS. 
[From  an  old  woodcut.] 

of  the  Conservative  oligarchy  ;  to  maintain  the  auto- 
nomy of  the  provinces ;  and  to  preserve  the  con- 
stitution, whose  guarantees  were  being  rendered 
nugatory.  Fighting  only  lasted  two  months,  but 
there  were  fifteen  important  fights  in  Minas  and  five 
in  Sao  Paulo.  The  government  forces  under  Caxias 
were  completely  victorious,  and  in  the  final  and  de- 
cisive battle   of  Santa  Luzia  he  overwhelmed  and 


454  BRAZIL 

dispersed  three  thousand  men  and  captured  all  the 
principal  leaders.  The  Emperor  and  Caxias  adopted 
a  magnanimous  and  conciliatory  policy  toward  the 
defeated  rebels,  though  the  Conservative  ministers 
persisted  in  advocating  harsh  measures. 

Only  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  remained  under  arms, 
and  even  there  the  rebels  were  not  averse  to  accept- 
ing the  Emperor's  authority.  As  soon  as  Caxias  had 
finished  the  pacification  of  Minas,  he  was  ordered 
south.  The  campaign  began  by  his  winning  two 
important  victories,  and  he  followed  them  up  by 
promises  of  amnesty  which  detached  some  of  the 
most  formidable  rebel  chiefs.  Finally,  in  the  spring 
of  1845,  Rio  Grande  returned  to  the  Brazilian  union 
on  the  concession  of  a  full  and  complete  amnesty. 
That  province  has  ever  since  enjoyed  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  autonomy  than  any  other  part  of  Brazil. 

By  the  beginning  of  1844  the  disintegrating  effects 
of  a  long  continuance  in  power  showed  itself  among 
the  Conservatives.  The  Cabinet  came  to  an  issue 
with  the  Emperor  over  a  question  of  an  appoint- 
ment, and  he  called  the  Liberals  to  power.  The 
new  government  was  ready  to  carry  out  the  Em- 
peror's policy  of  full  and  free  amnesty  and  pacifi- 
cation by  concession.  With  the  collapse  of  the 
revolution  in  Rio  Grande  the  central  government 
seemed  at  length  to  have  passed  all  danger.  The 
demands  for  a  juster  interpretation  of  the  Acto 
Addtcioiial  and  for  a  larger  measure  of  autonomy 
to  the  provinces  and  municpaiities  died  out  alto- 
gether, or  took  a  peaceful  form.  The  Liberals  in 
power  turned  out  to  be  as  conservative  as  the  Con- 


PEDRO  IT.  455 

servatives  themselves,  and  the  work  of  consolidation 
and  centralisation  proceeded  uninterruptedly. 

The  Liberal  ministry,  was,  however,  in  a  false 
situation.  The  very  name  they  bore  was  an  implied 
promise  to  effect  reforms.  Their  majority  soon  split 
up  into  warring  factions.  Congress  spent  the  ses- 
sion of  1848  in  quarrelsome  debates;  the  fall  of 
Louis  Philippe  had  diffused  a  spirit  of  revolution  in 
the  air ;  the  municipal  elections  were  accompanied  by 
riots,  and  the  ministry  itself  deliberately  encouraged 
a  renewal  of  the  anti-Portuguese  agitation.  The 
Emperor  thought  himself  obliged  to  intervene,  and 
appointed  a  Conservative  Cabinet.  In  Pernambuco 
the  new  Conservative  governor  displaced  the  Liberal 
officials  who  had  been  holding  office  for  the  last 
three  years.  The  latter  were  anti-Rio  and  anti- 
Portuguese,  and  they  and  their  partisans  started 
an  insurrection  known  as  that  of  the  praiciros.  It 
quickly  assumed  a  formidable  character  and  as  many 
as  two  thousand  revolutionists  took  part  in  a  single 
battle,  but  after  three  months  of  fighting  they  were 
completely  defeated.  Little  difficulty  was  experi- 
enced in  restoring  public  order.  The  movement 
had  been  rather  a  partisan  uprising  than  a  general 
popular  revolution. 

This  was  the  last  attempt  for  more  than  forty 
years  to  establish  a  federal  system.  The  necessities 
of  the  stormy  period  from  1827  to  1848  had  led,  step 
by  step,  to  a  form  of  government  which  was  central- 
ised and  yet  not  absolute.  The  imperial  system  had 
been  the  result  of  a  natural  growth.  When  the 
fabric  reached  stability  the  professional  ruling  classes 


456 


BRAZIL 


feared  to  disturb  it,  and  the  people  were  too  inert 
and  indifferent  to  afford  support  to  agitators  and 
reformers. 

Agriculture,   commerce,    and    industry  advanced 
only  slowly  during  the  first  eight  years  of  Pedro's 


PRINCESS   ISABEL    IN    1SS9. 

rule.  The  country  was  getting  ready  for  the  activ- 
ity which  followed.  Great  Britain's  efforts  to  induce 
the  Brazih"an  government  to  carry  out  its  treaty 
obligations  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade 
had  been  futile.  In  1845  the  British  Parliament 
passed  the  Aberdeen  Bill,  which  authorised  British 


PEDRO  II.  457 

men-of-war  to  capture  slavers  even  in  territorial 
waters.  This  measure  was  especially  directed  at 
Brazil,  whose  coast  had  become  practically  the  sole 
market  for  the  horrible  traffic.  The  bill  did  not  im- 
mediately effect  its  purpose,  and  the  slavers  made 
the  most  of  the  opportunity.  In  1848  over  sixty 
thousand  negroes  were  imported  into  Brazil.  Im- 
migration from  Europe  had  practically  ceased  with 
the  expulsion  of  Pedro  1.  and  the  anti-foreign  de- 
monstrations of  the  Regency,  but  it  now  slowly 
began  again.  In  1843  Dom  Pedro,  being  then  not 
quite  eighteen  years  old,  was  married  by  proxy  to 
Theresina  Christina,  daughter  of  Francis,  King  of 
Naples.  There  is  a  tradition  that  the  Emperor 
turned  his  back  when  he  saw  his  bride's  face.  Never- 
theless, he  made  her  a  good  husband.  Their  two 
boys  died  in  infancy,  but  in  1846  Isabel  was  born, 
who  still  survives  and  lives  in  Paris  with  her  hus- 
band, a  grandson  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  with  her 
three  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  is  named  for  his 
grandfather  and  was  twenty-seven  years  old  in  1902. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 


EVENTS   OF    1849   TO    1 864 

AFTER  the  final  pacification  of  the  country  pro- 
sperity came  with  a  rush.  In  the  six  years 
from  1849  ^^  ^^5^  foreign  commerce  more  than 
doubled.  The  circulating  medium  was  brought  to 
a  sound  basis.  Coffee  had  doubled  in  value  by  1850, 
and  its  culture  was  rapidly  extended.  The  profits 
of  sugar-raising  had  not  risen  in  the  same  propor- 
tion, and  Rio,  Sao  Paulo,  and  Minas  drew  slaves 
from  the  northern  provinces.  The  decline  of  mining 
in  the  late  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
profitableness  of  sugar  and  tobacco  during  the  great 
wars  had  made  Maranhao,  Pernambuco,  and  Bahia 
overshadow  the  South  for  a  time,  but  now  the  tide 
turned  the  other  way.  Brazil's  drift  has  ever  since 
been  to  the  South. 

The  Emperor  and  government  followed  an  enlight- 
ened and  vigorous  progressive  commercial  policy. 
The  subjects  of  internal  communication,  of  colon- 
isation, of  better  steamship  facilities,  of  the  opening 
of  public  lands  to  settlement,  of  public  instruction, 
of  liberal  treatment  to  foreigners,  and  of  administra- 

458 


EVENTS  OE  i8^g  ro  1864.  459 

tive  and  financial  reforms  were  taken  up  intelligently. 
So  far  as  the  government  was  concerned  the  sus- 
picious and  jealous  exclusive  policy  was  abandoned, 
and  large  amounts  of  foreign  capital  began  to  be 
invested  in  commercial  houses,  preparing  the  way 
for  the  great  government  loans  and  railroad  building 
soon  to  come.  The  British  had  the  lion's  share  of 
the  importing  and  the  Americans  of  the  carrying 
trade. 

The  history  of  Brazil  for  the  next  few  decades 
contains  examples  of  devotion,  of  high-mindedness, 
and  of  great  capacities  worthily  employed,  of  which 
any  country  might  well  be  proud.  The  higher 
officials  as  a  rule  left  office  poorer  than  they  had 
entered  it.  However,  in  the  lower  ranks  of  the 
magistracy  and  the  government  departments  there 
was  much  to  be  desired.  The  public  service  became 
more  and  more  the  one  career  sought  by  young 
men  of  ability.  The  mercantile  and  property-own- 
ing classes  in  general  kept  out  of  politics.  Only 
the  landowning  and  slaveholding  aristocracy  owed 
a  nominal  allegiance  to  the  two  parties  whose  ac- 
tive members  were  the  officeholders  or  those  who 
hoped  to  become  officeholders.  The  most  promis- 
ing and  prominent  young  men  were  selected  from 
the  graduates  of  the  universities,  placed  in  the  magis- 
tracy, thence  to  be  promoted  to  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  and  to  be  governors  of  provinces.  The 
final  goal  was  a  nomination  to  the  senate,  where, 
from  the  dignified  security  of  a  life  position,  the 
successful  Brazilian  politician  watched  the  struggles 
of  those  below  him. 


460 


BRAZIL 


The  bright  young  magistrates  were  preoccupied 
with  their  own  ambitions  and  were  not  responsible 
to  the  people  of  the  localities  they  happened  to  be 
governing  for  the  moment.  Real  local  interests 
were  not  studied.  Those  who  reached  the  highest 
positions  applied  their  well-trained  minds  to  larger 
problems,  but  their  work  was  too  much  from  above 


PAMPAS    OF   THE    RIO    CRAMU 


down — they  produced  admirable  reports  and  framed 
admirable  laws,  but  among  the  lazy  magistracy  and 
indifferent  people  the  energy  to  put  them  into  effect 
was  too  often  wanting.  But  the  level  of  political 
well-being  rose  noticeably,  though  fitfully.  The 
Brazil  of  1850  had  progressed  far  beyond  the  Brazil 
of  colonial  times.  Liberty  of  speech  was  unques- 
tioned and  unquestionable;  arbitrary  imprisonment 


EVENTS  OF  iS^g    TO  t86^  46 1 

had  died  out ;  the  grosser  forms  of  tyranny  had 
vanished;  property  rights  and  the  administration  of 
civil  justice  had  much  improved.  Judges  no  longer 
openly  received  presents  from  litigants,  though  the 
nation  had  not  risen  to  the  conception  of  a  judiciary 
independent  of  the  executive. 

In  1850  the  Emperor  chose  a  new  Conservative 
Cabinet,  which  proved  the  most  efficient  the  country 
had  known.  Its  first  great  act  was  to  abolish  the 
slave  trade. 

The  year  1850  is  also  memorable  as  that  in  which 
the  yellow  fever  began  those  terrible  ravages  on 
the  Brazilian  coast  which  have  never  since  entirely 
ceased.  The  first  epidemic  is  said  to  have  been  the 
worst  which  ever  visited  Rio.  Two  hundred  per- 
sons fell  sick  daily,  and  the  wealthier  classes  were 
especially  attacked.  Among  the  victims  was  the 
great  statesman,  Bernardo  de  Vasconcellos,  and 
many  deputies,  senators,  and  diplomatic  representa- 
tives. Congress  adjourned  in  terror.  In  the  earlier 
epidemics  the  citizens  of  Rio  were  just  as  susceptible 
as  foreigners.  Later,  however,  they  acquired  a  rela- 
tive immunity — an  immunity  which  is  not  shared  by 
Brazilians  who  have  lived  in  non-infected  districts. 

Brazil  and  Argentina  had  agreed  in  1828  that 
Uruguay  should  be  an  independent  and  neutral 
buffer  state  between  them.  But  the  Buenos  Air- 
eans  never  forgot  that  for  geographical  and  histor- 
ical reasons  Uruguay  naturally  belonged  to  them. 
Rosas,  the  Argentine  dictator,  assisted  the  Oribe 
faction,  which  openly  advocated  entering  the  con- 
federation, while   the    Rio   Grande   Brazilians  who 


462  BRAZIL 

owned  much  property  on  the  Uruguayan  side  of  the 
border  aided  the  Riveva  faction. 

To  protect  the  property  interests  of  its  citizens 
and  prevent  Rosas  from  conquering  Uruguay  the 
BraziHan  government  quietly  made  miUtary  prepara- 
tions and  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Rivera  party 
and  with  Urquiza,  the  ruler  of  the  province  of  Entre 
Rios,  to  which  the  dictator  of  Paraguay  and  the 
president  of  Bolivia  gave  a  passive  adhesion.  It 
amounted  to  a  coalition  to  forestall  Rosas's  plan  of 
uniting  the  whole  of  the  old  Viceroyalty  and  the 
Plate  valley  under  his  rule.  Brazil  was  virtually 
the  instigator  of  a  combination  of  the  weaker  Span- 
ish-American states  against  the  strongest  one. 

Urquiza  crossed  the  Uruguay,  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  Brazilian  troops  made  short  work  of  Oribe's 
army,  which  was  besieging  Rivera  in  Montevideo. 
Rosas  responded  with  a  declaration  of  war  and 
began  collecting  a  formidable  army.  Urquiza  re- 
solved to  carry  the  war  to  the  gates  of  Buenos 
Aires.  The  allies  gathered  in  camp  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Parana,  a  hundred  miles  above  Rosario,  a 
great  army  which  numbered  four  thousand  Brazil- 
ians, eighteen  thousand  Argentines,  mostly  from 
the  half-Indian  provinces  of  Entre  Rios  and  Cor- 
rientes,  and  a  contingent  of  Uruguayans.  A  Brazil- 
ian fleet  under  Admiral  Grenfell  had  penetrated  up 
the  Parand  and  protected  their  crossing  of  the  great 
river.  On  the  17th  of  December  they  got  safely 
over  the  Parand,  and  out  of  the  low  country  of 
Entre  Rios  on  to  the  dry  pampas  of  the  right  bank. 
Thence  they  marched  down  on  Buenos  Aires,  where 


EVENTS  OF  l84g    TO  1 864  463 

Rosas  was  awaiting  them.  On  the  3rd  of  February, 
1852,  he  gave  them  battle  in  the  suburbs  of  that 
city.  He  was  completely  defeated  and  fled  to  Eng- 
land. 

Brazil  found  herself  in  a  peculiarly  advantageous 
situation.  The  war  had  cost  her  little  in  money  or 
men.  Buenos  Aires  might  no  longer  hope  to  domin- 
ate the  other  Argentine  provinces,  and  seemed  likely 
to  offer  small  resistance  to  the  unified  and  centralised 
empire.  Uruguay's  independence  of  Buenos  Aires, 
and  Brazil's  preponderance  m  Montevideo  were  as- 
sured. The  Rio  Grandenses  flocked  over  the  border, 
bought  large  amounts  of  property,  and  enjoyed 
peculiar  privileges,  while  the  Uruguayan  govern- 
ment accepted  subsidies  from  that  of  Brazil. 

The  country's  commercial  development  continued 
even  more  rapidly  after  the  war.  In  1853  the  Bank  of 
Brazil  was  authorised  to  issue  circulatiug  notes,  and 
the  expansion  of  credit  stnnulated  business.  The 
same  year  the  Conservative  ministry,  which  had  so 
brilliantly  governed  the  nation  since  1848,  was  forced 
to  resign  on  account  of  the  constant  interference  by 
the  Emperor.  It  was  replaced  by  the  "Conciliation 
Cabinet"  —  whose  chief,  the  Marquis  of  Parana, 
adopted  the  policy  of  admitting  Liberals  to  admin- 
istrative positions.  He  remained  in  power  until 
1858,  and  his  name  will  always  be  associated  with 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  epochs  in  Brazilian  his- 
tory. The  first  railway  systems  were  inaugurated ; 
the  receipts  of  the  treasury  grew  fifty  per  cent. ; 
European  immigration  amounted  to  twenty  thou- 
sand a  year;  private  wealth  and  luxury  increased; 


464  BRAZIL 

and  numerous  theatres,  balls,  and  social  reunions  fur- 
nished an  indication  of  the  rise  of  the  level  of  culture. 

One  of  Brazil's  reasons  for  entering  on  the  war 
against  Rosas  was  to  open  up  the  navigation  of  the 
Paraguay,  Parana,  and  Uruguay,  upon  which  she 
depended  for  access  to  a  large  part  of  her  territory. 
The  treaties  made  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war 
assured,  against  her  protest,  free  navigation  to  all 
nations.  Brazil  has  intermittently  attempted  to 
confine  the  navigation  of  the  international  rivers 
of  South  America  to  the  nations  having  territory 
on  their  banks. 

Parana's  "conciliation"  policy  seems  to  have 
suited  the  Emperor  very  well,  although  it  tended  to 
hamper  the  development  of  two  great  parties  in 
clearly  defined  opposition  to  each  other.  The  elec- 
tions came  more  and  more  under  the  control  of  the 
bureaucracy  and  were  mere  ratifications  of  selections 
made  by  the  ministers.  Congress  lost  rather  than 
gained  in  influence,  and  the  whole  system  became 
steadily  more  centripetal. 

From  1849  th^  country  had  been  having  prosper- 
ous times,  but  in  1856  the  inevitable  commercial 
crisis  came.  Prosperity  had  brought  about  extrava- 
gances in  governmental  administration;  the  budgets 
showed  deficits ;  foreign  loans  were  resorted  to ;  the 
currency  fluctuated  violently.  Brazil  entered  upon 
seven  lean  years,  during  which  foreign  trade  re- 
mained stationary,  the  revenues  increased  only  at 
the  cost  of  heavy  impositions,  and  the  public  debt 
grew.  With  the  death  of  the  Marquis  of  Parana  in 
1858  the  regular  Conservatives  returned  to  power. 


EVENTS  OF  184.^    TO  1 86 4. 


465 


He  had  been  the  dominant  figure  in  politics  since 
the  Regency,  and  his  personal  prestige  and  the  con- 
fidence the  Emperor  reposed  in  him  had  had  much  to 
do  with  holding  the  government  together  during  the 
panic.  But  the  new  ministry  could  not  make  head- 
way against  the  difficulties.  A  new  currency  law 
was  necessary,  but  the  mercantile  and  speculating 


OLD   MARKET   IN   SAO   PAULO. 


classes  bitterly  opposed  the  rigid  measures  proposed 
by  successive  Cabinets.  Parana's  neutral  policy  had 
given  the  opposition  a  hold  in  some  of  the  most 
important  provinces,  and  the  following  elections 
showed  a  vast  increase  in  the  number  of  Liberals 
and  of  dissident  Conservatives.  Conservative  Cabi- 
nets succeeded  each  other  rapidly  from  1858  to  1862. 
The  opposition    to   a  contraction   of  the   currency 


466  BRAZIL 

grew  in  force,  and  the  dissidents  and  Liberals  finally 
obtained  a  majority.  The  Emperor  at  last  called 
upon  the  leader  of  the  dissident  Conservatives — 
Zacarias — to  form  a  government.  But  he  was  as 
powerless  as  his  predecessors,  and  as  a  last  resort  the 
Emperor  temporarily  gave  up  the  effort  to  govern 
after  the  English  system,  and  selected  a  Cabinet  out- 
side of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

The  elections  of  1863  resulted  in  a  complete  defeat 
of  the  Conservatives,  but  the  victorious  Liberals  did 
not  need  to  pass  any  radical  currency  legislation. 
Hard  times  had  disappeared  by  the  operation  of 
natural  law.  The  bank-notes  approached  par  and 
the  budgets  nearly  balanced.  With  1864  the  coun- 
try entered  upon  a  new  era  of  prosperity.  The  pro- 
duction of  coffee  had  doubled  from  1840  to  1851, 
and  then  had  remained  stationary.  But  with  the 
cessation  of  the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States  an 
era  of  high  prices  was  inaugurated  which  coincided 
with  Brazil's  financial  rehabilitation,  and  stimulated 
planting.  Although  real  activity  in  the  building  of 
railroads  did  not  begin  until  after  the  Paraguayan 
war,  four  short  lines  had  been  started  before  1862. 
The  years  of  peace  and  order  had  disaccustomed 
the  people  to  the  thought  of  violence,  and  a  steady 
advance  had  been  made  toward  government  by  law. 
The  highly  educated  statesmen  placed  by  the  Em- 
peror at  the  head  of  affairs  understood  the  most 
important  principles  of  good  government  and  tried 
conscientiously  to  put  them  in  practice.  In  trans- 
portation, banking,  posts,  and  telegraphs,  commer- 
cial  methods,    etc.,    the  improvements   of  modern 


EVENTS  OF  l84g    TO   1 864.  467 

civilisation  were  easily  introduced,  though  in  agri- 
culture the  indolence  of  proprietors  and  the  apathetic 
ignorance  of  the  slaves  prevented  any  rapid  advance. 
On  the  whole,  Brazil  had  made  greater  political  and 
industrial  progress  when  the  Paraguayan  war  broke 
out  than  any  other  South  American  country,  though 
grave  vices  remained  to  hamper  her  further  develop- 
ment. The  mass  of  the  people  were  apathetic  and 
ignorant ;  slavery  tended  to  discredit  industrious 
habits,  at  best  so  difficult  to  maintain  in  the  tropics; 
the  upper  classes  showed  little  interest  in  or  aptitude 
for  commercial  matters:  commerce,  banking,  rail- 
roads, mining,  and  engineering  prospered  only  where 
foreigners  personally  engaged  in  them.  The  peo- 
ple themselves,  in  spite  of  the  enlightenment  of  the 
educated  classes,  showed  little  initiative  or  energy. 


CHAPTER   XIX 


THE    PARAGUAYAN    WAR 


BRAZILIAN  statesmen  might  well  have  been 
pardoned  if,  in  1865,  they  had  claimed  for  their 
country  the  hegemony  of  South  America.  The  re- 
sult of  the  war  against  Rosas  had  been  brilliant;  the 
Argentine  had  only  just  emerged  from  half  a  century 
of  civil  war;  Uruguay  was  almost  a  Brazilian  pro- 
tectorate; Brazil's  internal  condition  was  settled;  in 
concentration  of  power,  as  well  as  in  wealth,  popul- 
ation, and  extent,  she  was  at  the  head  of  the 
continent.  With  the  republics  on  the  west  she 
maintained  good  relations,  while  all  the  time  she 
was  firmly  pressing  her  territorial  claims  on  toward 
the  foot  of  the  Andes.  She  even  attempted  to  con- 
trol the  navigation  of  the  great  waterways  of  South 
America. 

In  1863,  Floras,  a  defeated  chief,  returned  from 
Buenos  Aires  and  set  up  the  standard  of  revolt  in 
Uruguay.  Penetrating  as  far  as  the  Brazilian  bor- 
der he  received  assistance,  and  Aguirre,  the  Montc- 
videan  president,  protested.  At  the  same  time  the 
latter  ruler  refused  to  settle  certain  claims  on  behalf 

468 


470  BRAZIL 

of  Brazilian  citizens  which  the  Rio  government  had 
been  pressing.  The  Emperor  decided  to  intervene 
and  help  Flores,  and  thereupon  sent  a  man-of-war 
up  the  Uruguay  River,  which  blockaded  a  port  and 
destroyed  Uruguayan  public  property.  Aguirre  de- 
clared war,  and  Brazil  and  Flores  in  alliance  besieged 
and  took  the  principal  towns  in  western  Uruguay. 
The  Argentine  received  satisfactory  assurances  and 
remained  neutral. 

This  high-handed  adjustment  of  Uruguayan  affairs 
furnished  a  pretext  to  the  Paraguayan  dictator, 
Francisco  Lopez,  to  intervene  in  his  turn.  Under 
a  line  of  vigorous  dictators  who  concentrated  all  the 
forces  of  the  nation  into  their  own  hands,  that 
country  had  become  menacing  to  the  loosely  organ- 
ised Argentine  Republic.  Lopez  even  thought  he 
was  strong  enough  to  bid  defiance  to  Brazil.  The 
tyrant  was,  in  fact,  an  impossible  neighbour  for  the 
two  more  progressive  and  civilised  powers.  For 
years  he  had  been  preparing  for  war  and  at  the  mo- 
ment was  stronger  in  a  military  way  than  either  of 
his  bulky  neighbours.  He  hated  both  Argentines 
and  Brazilians,  and  his  people  had  been  taught  to 
despise  the  courage  of  the  latter.  Though  Brazil's 
intervention  in  Uruguay  was  a  matter  in  which  he 
had  an  interest,  a  dignified  protest  would  have  ob- 
tained ample  assurances  that  the  latter's  independ- 
ence would  be  respected,  for  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  imperial  government  intended  to  do  any- 
thing more  than  to  replace  its  enemy  Aguirre  by  the 
friendly  Floras.  But  the  arrogant  tyrant  wanted  to 
draw  the  world's  attention  to  himself.     He  appre- 


THE  PARAGUA  YAM    WAR  47 1 

ciated  how  difficult  it  would  be  for  Brazil  to  send  an 
army  against  him  and  how  much  more  difficult  it 
would  be  to  maintain  one,  and  he  also  knew  that 
she  was  unprepared  to  undertake  a  serious  wat  on 
foreign  soil. 

Without  any  declaration  of  war,  in  the  fall  of  1864 
he  seized  a  Brazilian  steamer  which  was  making  its 
regular  trip  up  the  Paraguay  River  to  Matto  Grosso. 
The  crew  were  imprisoned,  and  only  the  intervention 
of  the  American  minister  saved  the  lives  of  the 
Brazilian  minister  and  his  family.  This  outrage  left 
Brazil  no  alternative.  Lopez  followed  up  the  seizure 
of  the  boat  by  an  expedition  up  the  Paraguay  River 
against  Matto  Grosso,  and  easily  conquered  the  prin- 
cipal southern  settlements  in  that  province. 

The  geographical  position  of  the  Argentine  made 
her  attitude  of  decisive  importance  to  both  belliger- 
ents. Uruguay  and  the  southern  provinces  of  Brazil 
were  separated  from  Paraguay  by  the  Argentine 
provinces  of  Corrientes  and  the  Missions.  Argen- 
tina had  favoured  Flores's  pretensions,  and  Lopez 
was  so  obnoxious  that  the  secret  sympathies  of  Bue- 
nos Aires  were  with  Brazil.  Further  than  neutrality, 
Mitre,  then  president  of  Argentina,  would  not  go. 
He  declared  that  no  permission  would  be  given 
either  belligerent  to  cross  Argentine  territory  with 
troops.  Lopez  was  made  desperately  angry  at  this 
refusal;  he  thought  he  could  count  on  the  alliance 
and  support  of  Urquiza,  the  virtually  independent 
ruler  of  the  province  of  Entre  Rios  and  Mitre's 
enemy,  and  seems  to  have  believed  that  he  might 
as  well  finish  up  with  both  Argentina  and  Brazil  at 


472  BRAZIL 

one  sitting.  In  March,  1865,  he  deliberately  de- 
clared war  on  the  Argentine,  and  eighteen  thousand 
Paraguayan  troops  crossed  the  Parana  and  began 
offensive  operations  against  Corrientes,  Uruguay, 
and  Brazil. 

Instead  of  rising  against  Mitre,  Urquiza  declared 
himself  against  the  Paraguayan  dictator,  and  as  his 
province  of  Entre  Rios  controlled  access  to  Paraguay 
by  water,  Lopez  found  that  the  only  result  of  his 
rash  act  was  to  open  up  the  way  by  which  his 
enemies  could  most  conveniently  reach  him.  On 
the  first  of  May,  1865,  a  formal  alliance  was  made 
between  Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Uruguay.  Mitre 
was  agreed  upon  as  commander-in-chief;  the  allies 
promised  not  to  lay  down  their  arms  until  Lopez 
should  be  overthrown  and  expelled  from  Para- 
guay; and  pledges  were  given  to  respect  Paraguay's 
independence.  Of  the  three  allies  Brazil  was  the 
only  one  which  could  be  expected  to  give  its  whole 
force.  Flores  could  only  answer  for  the  Colorado 
faction  of  Uruguay.  Argentina  did  not  represent 
much  more  than  Buenos  Aires.  Entre  Rios  was 
Urquiza's,  and  the  other  outside  provinces  had 
no  great  interest  in  the  result.  Nevertheless,  the 
alliance  was  very  advantageous  to  Brazil.  It  would 
have  been  well-nigh  impossible  to  wage  a  suc- 
cessful war  against  an  enemy  shut  up  in  the  middle 
of  the  continent,  and  accessible  only  by  a  three- 
months'  march  across  nearly  impassable  country,  or 
by  tedious  navigation  up  a  single  river  running 
through  a  third  country,  and  where  an  army  would 
have  to   be  disembarked  direct  from  ships  on  the 


THE  PARAGUAYAN    WAR  473 

enemy's  soil.  The  adhesion  of  Argentina  made  an 
aggressive  war  possible,  and  the  event  proved  how 
hopeless  would  have  been  a  campaign  by  Brazil 
alone. 

The  story  of  the  military  operations  belongs  to 
the  history  of  Paraguay,  and  only  those  events 
which  bore  a  direct  relation  to  internal  affairs  in 
Brazil  will  be  mentioned  here.  The  successful  naval 
battle  of  Riachuelo,  on  the  Parana,  just  below  the 
southern  end  of  Paraguayan  territory,  in  June,  1865, 
aroused  great  enthusiasm  in  Brazil.  National  feel- 
ing was  hardly  cooled  by  the  news  which  soon  fol- 
lowed of  a  Paraguayan  invasion  of  Rio  Grande,  and 
rose  again  with  the  defeat  of  that  invasion.  Brazil's 
regular  army  numbered  less  than  fifteen  thousand 
men  before  the  war,  but  at  the  Emperor's  call  fifty- 
seven  battalions  of  volunteers  were  organised  in  the 
fall  of  1865.  A  loan  of  five  million  pounds  was 
arranged  in  London,  and  no  expense  was  spared  in 
fitting  out  the  army  and  in  strengthening  the  fleet. 
By  the  end  of  the  war  Brazil  had  eighty-five  ships, 
not  counting  transports,  of  which  thirteen  were 
ironclads.  The  voyage  from  Rio  de  Janeiro  to 
Paraguay  takes  a  month,  and  the  transportation  of 
men  and  material  was  tedious  and  extremely  expens- 
ive. The  government  resorted  to  the  issue  of  paper 
money,  and  outraged  the  feelings  of  the  financial 
world  by  compelling  the  Bank  of  Brazil  to  give  up 
the  reserve  it  was  maintaining  for  the  redemption  of 
its  note  issues.  The  premium  on  gold  rose  and  the 
currency  fluctuated  wildly,  although  general  trade 
continued  to  boom. 


474  BRAZIL 

In  September,  1865,  the  Paraguayan  army  which 
had  invaded  Rio  Grande  was  captured  in  a  body,  and 
peace  was  confidently  expected.  Lopez,  however, 
decided  to  fight  it  out  to  the  bitter  end,  and  it  was 
April,  1866,  before  the  allies  could  gain  a  foothold 
on  Paraguayan  soil.  For  the  next  six  months  Brazil 
was  sickened  with  accounts  of  desperately  bloody 
and  indecisive  battles,  of  which  the  last  was  an 
awful  repulse  before  Curupayty.  For  more  than  a 
year  thereafter  the  allies  lay  motionless  in  their 
camps  in  the  south-western  corner  of  Paraguay, 
while  the  cholera  carried  off  thousands. 

Though  his  favourite  general,  Marshal  Caxias, 
was  a  Conservative,  and  not  on  good  terms  with  the 
Liberal  Cabinet,  the  Emperor  insisted  that  he  be 
sent  to  take  command.  Re-enforcements  were  vig- 
orously recruited  from  all  over  the  empire,  and  in 
July,  1867,  the  cautious  Caxias  began  a  slow  ad- 
vance. The  expenses  were  mounting  up  to  sixty 
millions  a  year ;  the  country  chafed  at  the  delays, 
Caxias  quarrelled  with  the  ministers.  In  July,  1868, 
the  Emperor  dismissed  them  on  his  own  responsibil- 
ity, and,  though  the  Liberals  had  still  a  large  major- 
ity in  the  Chamber,  called  in  a  Conservative  Cabinet. 
On  this  occasion  the  Emperor's  pressure  was  not 
influential  enough  to  change  a  minority  into  a 
majority,  and  the  Chamber  preferred  dissolution  to 
submission.  Meanwhile  Caxias  had  at  last  begun 
to  win  victories.  The  very  month  of  the  fall  of  the 
Liberals  he  took  the  great  fortress  of  Humaitd,  which 
guarded  the  passage  up  the  Paraguay,  and  Lopez 
retreated  to  the  neighbourhood  of  his  capital  ac- 


THE  PARAGUAYAN    WAR 


475 


Companied  by  almost  all  the  surviving  Paraguayans, 
In  November  Caxias  cleverly  outflanked  him  and 
taking  him  in  the  rear  compelled  him  to  fight  out- 
side of  his  trenches  until  hardly  any  Paraguayans 
were  left.     By  the  beginning  of  1869  Lopez  was  a 


HOSPITAL   AND    OLD    CHURCH    AT    PORTO    ALEGRE. 


fugitive,  the  Brazilians  were  in  possession  of  Asun- 
cion, and  the  war  was  over  except  for  pursuing  Lopez 
and  the  few  starving  soldiers  who  followed  him 
through  the  woods. 

Elections  were  held  in  March,  but  it  was  not 
worth  while  for  the  Liberals  to  make  even  the  show 
of  a  contest.     The  Liberal  leaders  issued  a  manifesto 


4/6  BRAZIL 

declining  to  take  any  part,  and,  censuring  the  Em- 
peror for  calling  the  Conservatives  to  power  against 
the  known  wishes  of  the  majority  of  a  legally  elected 
Chamber,  announced  that  they  would  respect  the 
laws  and  would  confine  themselves  to  a  non-parlia- 
mentary propagation  of  the  doctrines  of  anti-ab- 
solutism, liberalism,  and  emancipation.  From  this 
time  dates  the  systematic  propaganda  for  the  repub- 
lic. The  war  ended  with  the  Emperor's  son-in-law 
hunting  down  the  Paraguayan  bands.  In  March, 
1870,  Lopez  was  caught  with  the  last  few  hundred 
men  who  remained  faithful  and  speared  by  a  common 
soldier  as  he  tried  to  escape  through  the  woods. 

The  war  had  cost  Brazil  three  hundred  million 
dollars  and  over  fifty  thousand  lives.  She  had 
gained  no  substantial  result  except  assuring  the 
safety  of  Matto  Grosso  and  securing  the  free  naviga- 
tion of  the  Paraguay.  The  Emperor  did  not  attempt 
to  use  his  victory  by  establishing  a  hegemony  over 
South  America.  Rather  did  the  end  of  the  Para- 
guayan war  mark  the  beginning  of  a  policy  of  sys- 
tematic abstention  from  intermeddling  with  outside 
matters.  Paraguay  and  Uruguay  were  left  in  full 
enjoyment  of  their  independence,  and  the  Argentine 
then  began  her  marvellous  industrial  progress  and 
political  consolidation.  The  Plate  republics  reaped 
the  benefits  of  the  war,  while  Brazil  bore  its  heaviest 
burdens.  Most  of  the  Argentine  provinces  had 
taken  little  part  except  to  furnish  provisions  and 
horses  at  high  prices,  and  the  opening  up  of  Para- 
guay redounded  to  the  benefit  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
Montevideo — not  to  that  of  Rio.     No  spirit  of  im- 


THE  PARAGUAYAN    WAR 


477 


perialism  spread  among  the  Brazilian  people,  though 
they  are  still  proud  of  the  record  their  soldiers  and 
sailors  then  made.  Their  bravery  in  field  fighting 
and  the  assault  of  fortified  places  was  proved  beyond 
question,  no  matter  how  poorly  the}^  may  have  been 
commanded,  and  how  deficient  their  organisation. 
The  history  of  no  war  contains  more  examples  of 
heroic  and  hopeless  charges,  or  stories  of  more 
desperate  hand-to-hand  fighting.  But  a  successful 
battle  was  followed  by  torpor;  Brazilian  tenacity 
was  shown  in  the  patience  with  which  defeats  were 
sustained,  and  in  holding  on  month  after  month  in 
camp,  rotting  in  the  miasmatic  swamps,  rather  than 
in  pursuing  advantages  obtained  in  the  field. 


CHAPTER   XX 


REPUBLICANISM   AND    EMANCIPATION 


FROM  1808  to  1837  the  tendency  had  been  in  the 
direction  of  democracy  and  decentralisation. 
Then  the  tide  turned  and  from  1837  to  the  Para- 
guayan war  the  central  government  grew  stronger 
and  federalism  weaker.  The  power  of  the  Emperor 
reached  its  apogee  in  1870.  The  senators  had  been 
personally  selected  by  him  and  he  could  count 
on  their  gratitude  and  friendship.  Deputies  were 
elected  indirectly  by  electors  chosen  by  a  suffrage 
nominally  universal,  but  the  elections — primary  and 
secondary — were  mere  farces,  absolutely  controlled 
by  the  ministry  which  happened  to  be  in  power. 
The  local  governors  and  magistrates,  the  ofBcers  of 
the  national  guard,  and  the  police,  all  dependent 
on  the  central  government  for  their  positions,  formed 
a  machine  against  which  opposition  was  useless.  If 
intimidation  was  not  sufficient,  the  baldest  frauds 
were  shamelessly  resorted  to  —  false  polling  lists, 
manufactured  returns,  and  the  seating  of  contestants 
by  the  majority  in  the  Chamber  or  the  returning 
boards.     Of  this  system  the  Emperor  was  the  real 

478 


REPUBLICAMSM  AND  EMANCIPATION      479 

beneficiary,  for  the  Cabinets  held  at  his  pleasure, 
and  if  the  majority  of  a  Chamber  did  not  sustain  a 
ministry  which  he  desired  to  keep  in  power,  all  he 
had  to  do  was  to  order  a  dissolution.  But  this 
hybrid  system  contained  in  itself  the  elements  of 
sure  decay.  The  Emperor  was  no  arbitrary  despot 
and  neither  wished  nor  would  he  have  been  able  to 
govern  in  complete  defiance  of  public  opinion.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  system  afforded  no  sure  method 
of  ascertaining  public  opinion  nor  of  throwing  a 
proper  responsibility  upon  well-organised  political 
parties. 

With  the  close  of  the  Paraguayan  war  a  series  of 
movements  began  which  ended  twenty  years  later 
with  the  overthrow  of  the  empire.  Brazil's  history 
during  those  twenty  years  is  an  account  of  the  re- 
publican propaganda,  the  abolition  movement,  the 
attempt  to  reform  the  elections,  the  religious  agita- 
tion, the  growth  of  positivist  doctrines,  the  demand 
for  economic  independence  b}-  the  great  province  , 
and  finally  the  infiltration  of  liberalism  and  insub- 
ordination into  the  army.  This  evolution,  how- 
ever, affected  principally  the  educated  classes.  The 
masses  of  the  people  were  and  still  remain  largely 
indifferent  to  the  march  of  public  events. 

Commerce  and  industry  continued  to  expand 
throughout    the    Paraguayan    war.      From    1865    to 

1872  the  annual  revenues  doubled,  and  though  in 
1868  the  emissions  of  paper  money  had  reduced  its 
value   one-half,   it   steadily  rose  thereafter  until    in 

1873  it  again  reached  par.  Just  after  the  war  the 
budget  balanced,  and  the  production  of  coffee  rose 


480 


BRAZIL 


one-half.  But  with  reHef  from  financial  pressure 
the  Conservative  ministers  became  extravagant, 
and  when  the  great  world  panic  of  1873  came  both 
government  and  country  were  badly  caught.  A 
foreign  loan  of  five  millions  sterling  made  in  1875 
was  not  enough  to  meet  the  mounting  deficits.     In 


BRIDGE   AT   MENDANHA. 


1878  new  issues  of  paper  money  were  resorted  to, 
and  exchange  dropped,  remaining  below  par  for  ten 
years  in  spite  of  a  subsequent  doubling  of  coffee 
production  and  a  great  increase  in  the  value  of  ex- 
ports. Population,  however,  which  had  increased 
from  five  to  ten  millions  from  1840  to  1870,  in  the 
next  twenty  years  mounted  to  fifteen  millions. 
The  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  by  the  Aber- 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EMANCIPATION      48 1 

deen  Act  and  the  Queiroz  law  made  it  probable 
that  the  institution  itself  would  ultimately  disappear. 
Brazilian  character  and  customs  had  always  stimu- 
lated voluntary  emancipation,  and  in  Brazil  the 
negro  does  not  reproduce  as  rapidly  as  the  white. 
In  1856  the  slaves  numbered  two  millions  and  a  half, 
being  nearly  forty  per  cent,  of  the  population,  but 
in  1873  their  number  had  fallen  to  1,584,000,  or 
only  sixteen  per  cent.  The  institution  was,  how- 
ever, socially  and  politically  very  strong.  Slaves 
furnished  nearly  all  the  labour  employed  in  the  pro- 
duction of  staple  exports,  and  it  was  believed  that 
emancipation  would  be  followed  by  agricultural  col- 
lapse. But  the  Emperor  was  too  enlightened  a 
Christian  and  too  susceptible  to  the  good  opinion  of 
the  civilised  world  not  be  at  heart  an  abolitionist. 
However,  it  was  only  at  the  height  of  his  influence 
that  he  deemed  it  wise  to  force  the  consideration  ot 
abolition  on  the  reluctant  nation.  Agitation  had 
begun  modestly  in  1864;  in  1866  gradual  emancipa- 
tion was  seriously  proposed,  but  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war  caused  the  matter  to  be  adjourned.  In 
1869  Joaquim  Nabuco,  father  of  the  present  Brazil- 
ian minister  to  Great  Britain,  succeeded  in  virtu- 
ally committing  the  Liberal  party  to  emancipation. 
With  the  return  of  peace  the  question  was  taken  up 
vigorously.  The  reactionary  Conservative  Cabinet 
resigned  rather  than  be  an  instrument  of  the  Em- 
peror's wishes  as  to  emancipation,  and  Pimenta 
Bueno  was  appointed  Prime  Minister  for  the  especial 
purpose  of  getting  a  lav/  through  Congress  declaring 
all  children   born   thereafter  free.      This   statesman 

VOL.  I.— 31. 


482  BRAZIL 

failed,  but  Rio  Branco,  father  of  the  present  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  was  more  successful.  After  a 
bitter  and  prolonged  parliamentary  struggle,  in  which 
Rio  Branco  used  every  weapon  that  his  position  gave 
him  in  gaining  and  holding  doubtful  Congressional 
votes,  the  law  was  passed  in  1871.  Thereafter  all 
children  born  of  slave  mothers  were  free,  though 
they  remained  bound  to  service  until  twenty-one. 
The  proprietors  were  also  required  to  register  all 
their  slaves.  Under  the  influence  of  these  measures 
the  number  of  slaves  decreased  with  astonishing 
rapidity^ — falling  from  1,584,000  in  1873  to  743,000 
in  1887. 

Rio  Branco's  victory  disrupted  the  Conservative 
party,  and  after  achieving  it  he  was  unable  to  hold 
his  majority  together.  The  Chamber  was  dissolved, 
and  though  the  new  one  supported  him  half-heartedly 
the  old  line  Conservatives  had  become  deeply  dis- 
satisfied with  the  radical  tendencies  of  the  govern- 
ment and  the  Emperor.  Public  men  of  all  parties 
awoke  to  realisation  of  the  inconsistency  between 
the  constitution  and  the  Emperor's  personal  power. 
Not  much  was  said  in  the  Chamber,  but  outside  the 
republican  propaganda  assumed  an  active  form,  and 
the  conviction  fast  crystallised  that  the  empire  could 
not  last  for  many  years.  A  republican  press  came 
into  existence  and  a  republican  party  was  organised 
under  the  leadership  of  Saldanha  Marinho,  an  able 
lawyer  of  Rio.  Republican  societies  were  formed 
in  all  the  centres  of  population,  but  there  was  no 
thought  of  armed  revolution.  There  is,  indeed,  no 
evidence  that  the  Emperor  ever  opposed  the  repub- 


484  BRAZIL 

Hcan  propaganda,  though  occasionally  he  detached 
some  of  its  able  members  by  promotions  to  office. 

In  1873,  1874,  and  1875  the  question  which  most 
absorbed  public  attention  was  the  imprisonment  of 
the  bishops  of  Para  and  Pernambuco  by  the  civil 
authorities.  The  lower  ranks  of  the  priesthood 
were  uneducated,  and  real  interest  in  religion  had 
largely  been  confined  to  women  and  the  lower 
classes.  With  the  growth  of  liberal  ideas  among 
the  laity  the  Church  awoke  to  the  necessity  of  a  re- 
formation. These  two  bishops  were  leaders  in  this 
counter-movement,  and  they  selected  the  Masonic 
Lodges  as  a  point  of  attack.  In  spite  of  the  nom- 
inal prohibition  of  the  Church,  Free-Masonry  had 
been  permitted  in  Brazil  since  1821,  and  the  lodges 
had  become  mere  social  clubs  and  philanthropic  so- 
cieties. Free-Masons  were  members  of  those  semi- 
religious  brotherhoods  which  take  charge  of  local 
church  feasts  and  constitute  the  most  important 
link  between  the  lay  and  spiritual  worlds  in  Brazil- 
ian communities.  The  two  militant  bishops  ordered 
that  the  brotherhoods  should  expel  their  Masonic 
members  or  suffer  the  penalty  of  losing  their  right 
to  use  the  church  edifices.  Where  these  orders  were 
not  obeyed  interdicts  were  laid.  The  progressive 
element  and  the  magistracy  took  the  side  of  the 
Masons,  but  the  bishops  were  not  without  their 
supporters.  The  government  insisted  that  the 
obnoxious  interdicts  be  withdrawn :  the  bishops 
refused  to  yield,  and  were  prosecuted  in  the  civil 
courts  and  sent  to  prison.  The  Princess  Isabel  was 
believed  to  be  on  the  priests'  side,  and  while  the 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EMANCIPATION      485 

excitement  gradually  died  out  and  things  went  on 
as  before,  a  wider  breach  than  e\  er  had  been  created 
between  the  progressive  and  conservative  classes. 
Like  the  slave-owners  devout  Catholics  now  felt 
that  they  could  no  longer  depend  on  the  imperial 
system  to  protect  them  against  the  rising  tide  of 
radicalism. 

The  financial  difficulties  growing  out  of  the  great 
panic  drove  Rio  Branco  from  power  in  1875,  and  a 
succession  of  Conservative  Cabinets  struggled  along 
until  1878.  The  question  of  electoral  reform  came 
to  the  front,  for  every  one  was  sick  of  the  absurd 
system  in  vogue,  and  the  leaders  of  both  the  histori- 
cal parties  hoped  for  great  things  from  a  radical 
change.  The  Emperor  was  opposed  to  giving  up 
the  indirect  method  of  voting,  but  was  anxious  to  try 
some  lesser  reforms.  On  his  return  from  the  United 
States  and  Europe  in  1877  he  viitually  instructed 
the  Cabinet  to  put  through  a  bill  drawn  after  his 
suggestions,  but  the  Prime  Minister  resigned  because 
the  Emperor  insisted  that  the  change  could  not  be 
made  by  an  ordinary  statute,  but  must  go  through 
the  tedious  process  of  an  amendment  to  the  consti- 
tution. The  Emperor  called  in  a  Liberal  Cabinet 
and  a  new  Chamber  was  elected. 

The  Liberal  ministry  continued  in  power  until 
1880,  and  then  fell,  partly  because  it  had  lost  its  hold 
with  the  Liberal  majority,  and  partly  because  of  the 
riots  in  Rio  over  the  street-car  tax.  A  law  had  been 
passed  compelling  each  passenger  to  pay  a  cent  in 
addition  to  the  regular  fare.  The  people  refused, 
burned  the  cars,  cut  the  harness  in  pieces,  threw  the 


486  BRAZIL 

conductors  off,  and  fought  the  police  until  the  busi- 
ness of  the  city  was  brouglit  to  a  standstill.  The 
Emperor  called  upon  a  cool  and  experienced  politi- 
cian, Jose  Antonio  Saraiva.  But  the  latter  refused 
to  take  office  unless  he  should  be  allowed  to  push 
through  the  election  bill  in  the  form  of  an  ordinary 
law.  Right  here  the  Emperor  suffered  a  great  de- 
feat. He  thought  himself  obliged  to  yield,  and  the 
vigorous  minister  at  once  secured  the  passage  of  a 
radical  law  which  completely  transformed  the  elect- 
oral system.  Suffrage  was  confined  to  the  educated 
and  property-holding  classes,  but  the  electors  voted 
directly  for  deputies,  and  the  country  was  divided 
into  districts  each  of  which  chose  a  single  deputy. 
The  electoral  body  was  now  permanent,  and  each 
deputy  was  responsible  to  a  definite  constituency. 
Saraiva  resigned  the  moment  his  bill  was  enacted 
into  law,  and  every  precaution  was  taken  to  ensure 
that  the  election  of  1881  should  be  free  from  any 
suspicion  of  official  pressure.  The  result  was  a 
revelation  to  the  small-bore  politicians  of  the  old 
regime.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  voters 
registered  out  of  an  adult  male  population  of  abou*" 
three  millions,  and  ninety-six  thousand  voted.  The 
new  members  were  divided  nearly  equally  between 
the  two  historical  parties — the  Liberals  getting  sixty- 
eight  and  the  Conservatives  fifty-four.  Two  minis- 
ters were  defeated  for  re-election  and  many  of  the 
contests  were  decided  by  small  majorities.  In  sub- 
sequent elections  the  Saraiva  law  proved  not  to  be 
so  effective,  and  since  it  is  not  in  the  Latin  nature 
to  be  satisfied  with  gradual  improvement,  the  liberal 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EMANCIPATION      487 

movement,  of  which  the  electoral  law  was  a  symp- 
tom, swept  on  with  increasing  violence  until  the 
beneficent  law  was  uprooted  along  with  the  mis- 
taken system  on  which  it  had  been  painfully  grafted. 
As  soon  as  electoral  reform  was  out  of  the  way 
abolition  became  once  more  the  dominant  question 
in  Brazilian  politics.  Though  the  majority  of  Lib- 
erals were  abolitionists  and  the  doctrine  was  one  of 
the  ofificial  principles  of  the  party,  the  various  Liberal 
Cabinets  which  succeeded  each  other  from  1881  to 
1884  managed  to  dodge  the  dangerous  issue.  Fin- 
ally the  Dantas  ministry  faced  it  squarely.  A  bill 
was  introduced  prohibiting  the  sale  of  slaves,  estab- 
lishing an  emancipation  fund,  and  freeing  slaves  as 
fast  as  they  reached  the  age  of  sixty.  A  terrific 
parliamentary  battle  followed  and  the  project  was 
defeated  by  only  seven  votes — forty-eight  Liberals 
and  four  Conservatives  voting  for  it,  and  seventeen 
Liberals  and  forty-two  Conservatives  against.  The 
Emperor  dissolved  the  Chamber  and  the  excitement 
overabolition  became  national.  The  abolitionists  sub- 
sidised newspapers, held  public  meetings, and  marched 
through  the  streets  in  procession  carrying  pictures 
representing  the  torturing  of  slaves.  No  means  were 
spared  which  might  aid  to  rouse  the  national  con- 
science. The  negroes  were  advised  to  revolt,  and 
assistance  was  openly  promised  to  them.  The  elec- 
tions of  1884  were  violently  contested,  instead  of 
being  free  from  fraud  and  protest  like  those  of  1881. 
Nor  did  the  government  so  conscientiously  abstain 
from  interference.  Nevertheless  the  Chamber  elected 
did  not  differ  materially  in  its  composition  from  that 


488  BRAZIL 

which  had  preceded  it.  Sixty-five  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  members  of  the  new  House  were 
Liberals,  but  of  these  fifteen  were  opposed,  to  aboH- 
tion.  For  the  first  time  avowed  repubHcan  mem- 
bers were  elected — three  being  returned,  and  two  of 
them  came  from  Sao  Paulo — Prudente  Moraes  and 
Campos  Salles,  the  first  two  Brazilians  to  hold  ofiice 
avowedly  as  republicans  and  who  reaped  their  re- 
ward by  becoming  two  decades  later  the  first  two 
civil  presidents  of  the  republic.  No  election  was 
ever  held  in  Brazil  which  was  so  earnestly  contested 
and  which  constituted  so  genuine  an  expression  of 
the  wishes  of  the  people.  Nevertheless,  on  the  main 
question  —  that  of  abolition — the  result  was  ap- 
parently a  drawn  battle. 

With  the  meeting  of  the  Chamber  in  1885  the  agi- 
tation broke  out  afresh.  The  crowds  on  the  Rio 
streets  hissed  anti-emancipation  deputies,  and  there 
was  a  bitter  fight  for  the  control  of  the  organisation 
of  the  Chamber,  It  was  soon  evident  that  the  Dan- 
tas  ministry  could  not  force  abolition  through,  and 
it  resigned.  Saraiva  was  called  in  and  he  skilfully 
arranged  a  compromise.  With  the  aid  of  Conserva- 
tive votes  he  passed  a  bill  for  gradual  and  compen- 
sated emancipation.  This  done,  he  resigned.  The 
Liberal  party  was  disorganised  and  dissatisfied  with 
him,  and  he  did  not  deem  it  worth  his  while  to  try 
and  hold  it  together.  The  quarrelling  Liberal  ma- 
jority was  aghast  when  it  was  announced  that  a 
Conservative  Cabinet  would  take  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment. The  Emperor  had  begun  to  show  decided 
symptoms  of  a  failure  of  his  mental  powers  and  was 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EM  A  NCI  PA  TION      489 

ceasing  to  be  a  controlling  factor  in  parliamentary- 
affairs.  Saraiva's  resignation  further  exacerbated 
the  Liberal  leaders  against  the  imperial  system,  and 
at  the  same  time  continued  to  lose  ground  with  the 
slaveholders. 

In  the  election  the  Liberals  had  no  chance  and 
largely  refrained  from  voting.  The  governing  classes 
shrank  from  the  probable  consequences  of  abolition  ; 
the  temper  of  the  country  seemed  to  have  cooled; 
the  election  reform  of  1881  had  not  proven  in  prac- 
tice to  be  of  much  value.  Though  not  so  absolute 
as  before,  the  provincial  governors  resumed  their 
control  of  the  result,  and  returns  were  made  accord- 
ing to  the  wishes  of  the  ministry  in  power.  One 
hundred  and  three  Conservatives  received  certificates 
and  only  twenty-two  Liberals,  and  most  of  the  lat- 
ter came  from  the  interior  where  ofificial  pressure 
could  least  easily  be  applied.  Not  a  republican 
was  returned,  and  the  declared  abolitionists  had 
almost  disappeared,  although  every  one  knew  that 
the  final  blow  to  slavery  could  not  long  be  deferred. 

The  new  administration  devoted  itself  to  the 
finances.  Since  1871  the  deficits  had  been  continu- 
ous ;  one  sarcastic  statesman  said  amid  applause  that 
"the  empire  is  the  deficit."  The  issue  of  paper 
money  had  been  excessive.  Better  times  began  in 
1886.  A  loan  of  six  millions  sterling  was  contracted 
for  on  favourable  terms;  from  forty  per  cent,  below 
par  the  currency  rose  to  par  in  the  succeeding  three 
years ;  imports  and  exports  increased  by  leaps  and 
bounds ;  and  the  revenue  grew  seventy-five  per  cent, 
in  a  single  year.     The  production  of  coffee  in  Sao 


490  BRAZIL 

Paulo,  and  of  rubber  in  Para  and  Amazonas  reached 
unprecedented  figures;  foreign  immigration  was  sub- 
sidised and  a  systematic  propaganda  to  secure  it 
undertaken.  From  thirty  thousand  it  ran  up  to 
one  hundred  thousand  a  year,  and  the  apprehen- 
sions that  emancipation  would  cause  a  dearth  of 
labour  were  largely  quieted.  Government  subsidies 
had  kept  up  the  building  of  railroads  during  the 
years  when  the  treasury  was  most  embarrassed,  and 
naturally  went  on  more  rapidly  when  prosperity 
came.  When  the  Paraguayan  war  ended  there 
were  only  450  miles  of  railroad  in  the  country.  In 
the  decade  that  followed  1450  were  built,  while 
from  1880  to  1889  five  hundred  miles  a  year  were 
constructed. 

The  Conservative  Prime  Minister,  Baron  Cotegipe, 
struggled  hard  through  1886  and  1887  to  save  the 
remnants  of  slavery,  but  intelligent  and  unprejudiced 
opinion  was  nearly  unanimous  for  the  entire  ab- 
olition of  the  disgraceful  and  barbarous  institution. 
Project  after  project  was  presented,  each  one  more 
radical  than  the  last.  The  slaves  began  to  flee  from 
the  plantations.  The  army  refused  to  aid  the  police 
in  capturing  them.  The  poor  old  Emperor  had  gone 
abroad,  sick  and  failing,  leaving  Isabel  as  regent. 
Her  advisers,  mostly  priests  and  foreigners,  told  her 
that  the  delay  was  endangering  the  dynasty.  Cote- 
gipe resigned  and  John  Alfredo  was  made  Prime 
Minister  for  the  especial  purpose  of  passing  an 
emancipation  act.  When  Congress  met  in  May, 
1888,  the  speech  from  the  throne  announced  that 
the  imperial  programme  was  absolute,   immediate, 


REPUBLICANISM  AND  EMANCIPATION      49 1 

and  uncompensated  emancipation.  The  prestige  of 
the  Crown  was  sufficient  to  hush  nearly  all  opposi- 
tion. Within  eight  days  the  law  had  passed  both 
Houses  and  been  signed  by  the  princess.  The  votes 
against  it  were  hardly  numerous  enough  to  be  worth 


EMlKKoR    1)UM    I'EDRO    IN    iSSq. 


counting.  Only  Cotegipe  and  a  few  devoted 
monarchists  stood  in  their  places  and  read  aloud 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  prophesying  the 
sure  and  speedy  overthrow  of  a  monarchy  which 
had  thus  cast  off  its  surest  and  most  natural  sup- 
porters. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE    REVOLUTION  —  THE    DICTATORSHIP  —  THE 
ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

EVERY  intelligent  man  in  Brazil  had  long  recog- 
nised the  force  of  the  permanently  working 
causes  which  were  undermining  the  empire.  Affonso 
Celso,  in  1902  considered  the  ablest  advocate  of 
restoration,  and  the  son  of  the  last  Prime  Minister 
of  the  empire,  said,  in  1886,  from  his  place  as  na- 
tional deputy,  that  the  empire  maintained  itself 
only  through  the  tolerance  of  its  enemies.  Neither 
one  of  the  two  great  parties  of  office-holders  was 
really  monarchical,  although  the  members  of  both 
co-operated  with  the  Emperor  for  the  sake  of  the 
patronage.  But  the  Brazilian  masses  were  too  apa- 
thetic to  take  any  violent  measures  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  worn-out  institution  without  some 
definite  stimulus.  This  was  furnished  by  the  "mili- 
tary question"  in  1889. 

The  teachings  of  Benjamin  Constant,  a  professor 
of  the  military  school  at  Rio,  had  thoroughly  im- 
pregnated the  younger  officers  of  the  army  with 
republican   doctrine.     The   officers  were  extremely 

492 


THE  REVOLUTION 


493 


sensitive  about  their  professional  rights,  and  a  spirit 
of  disaffection  and  insubordination  was  rife  among 
them.  In  1886  there  was  great  indignation  in  the 
army  because  an  officer,  wdio  had  engaged  in  an  un- 
dignified newspaper  controv'ersy  with  a  deputy,  was 
reprimanded  by  the  secretary  of  w^ar.  A  httle  later 
another  ofificer  insisted  on  attacking  through  the  press 


MILITARY    SCHOOL  AT   RIO   JANEIRO. 


a  pension  law  advocated  by  the  war  department, 
and  his  cause  w^as  taken  up  by  the  highest  generals 
with  the  Marshal  Deodoro  de  Fonseca  at  their  head. 
This  general  was  transferred  from  his  post  to  a  less 
desirable  one,  and  a  new  outburst  of  indignation 
among  the  officers  agitated  army  circles.  The  min- 
istry thought  it  best  not  to  push  the  matter.  In 
1888  the  bad  feeling  was  further  exacerbated  by  the 
police  arresting  some  officers  for  disorderly  conduct 


494 


BRAZIL 


in  the  streets.  Again  the  army  demanded  satisfac- 
tion,  and  again  it  was  given.  The  favourite  cham. 
pion  of  military  dignity,  Deodoro,  was  sent  off  to 
Matto  Grosso  in  the  spring  of  1889,  and  this  was 
taken  as  equivalent  to  a  punishment  for  his  activ- 
ity in  maintaining  the  privileges  of  his  profession. 
Again  the  government  thought  it  prudent  to  yield, 
and  he  was  allowed  to  return. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Emperor's  health  had  grown 
more  feeble  and  the  Princess  Isabel  was  in  power. 
Herself  unpopular,  her  parsimonious  husband,  the 
Comte  d'Eu,  was  bitterly  disliked  by  most  Brazilians. 
The  rumour  gained  credence  that  there  was  a  plan  to 
have  the  sick  Emperor  resign  in  her  favour.  Though 
the  general  feeling  was  that  so  long  as  the  old  man 
lived  and  reigned  he  ought  not  to  be  disturbed,  the 
hot-headed  republican  officers  were  in  no  humour 
to  allow  the  princess  to  succeed  to  the  throne.  The 
Conservative  Cabinet  had  been  met  with  a  flat  re- 
fusal from  the  army  when  they  ordered  it  to  assist  in 
capturing  fugitive  slaves.  The  government's  hand 
was  thus  forced  on  the  slavery  question.  John  Al- 
fredo's Cabinet  succeeded  to  Cotegipe's,  but  was 
no  happier  in  its  dealings  with  the  "military  ques- 
tion." The  princess  determined  to  call  in  the 
Liberals,  and  their  hard-headed  leader,  Ouro  Preto, 
was  made  Prime  Minister.  By  many  this  was  be- 
lieved to  be  a  part  of  the  plot  for  an  abdication — 
that  the  princess's  friends  wanted  a  strong  man  at 
the  head  of  affairs  when  the  coiip  d'dtat  came. 

Ouro  Preto  took  charge  of  the  government  in 
June,  1889,  and  shortly  dissolved  the  Chamber  after 


THE  REVOLUTION  495 

some  bitter  debates  in  which,  for  the  first  time  in 
Brazil,  the  cry  of  "Viva  a  Republica  !  "  was  heard  on 
the  floor  of  Parliament.  The  new  ministry  had  no 
trouble  in  controlling  the  elections,  and  the  new 
Chamber  that  met  in  August  was  Liberal.  Ouro 
Preto  felt  strong  enough  to  undertake  to  reduce  the 
malcontents  to  submission.  He  began  by  strength- 
ening the  police  force  and  the  national  guard,  and 
removing  certain  regiments  from  the  capital.  But 
in  September  Deodoro  returned  from  the  remote 
wilds  of  Matto  Grosso  and  was  received  with  great 
demonstrations  by  his  comrades.  Secret  meetings 
of  officers  were  held,  and  they  pledged  themselves 
to  sustain  at  all  hazards  the  prestige  of  the  military 
class.  Professor  Constant,  whose  influence  with  the 
younger  officers  was  predominant,  openly  threatened 
the  ministry. 

Early  in  November  still  another  battalion  was 
ordered  off  from  the  capital  to  the  north  of  Brazil, 
and  this  was  the  immediate  occasion  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  military  conspiracy  in  which  Professor  Con- 
stant and  Deodoro  were  the  original  chiefs.  They 
determined  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  republic- 
ans and  invited  the  co-operation  of  Quintino  Bo- 
cayuva,  the  chief  of  the  militant  republicans;  of 
Aristides  Lobo,  a  republican  editor  of  Rio;  of 
Glycerio,  one  of  the  republican  chiefs  in  Sao  Paulo ; 
of  Ruy  Barbosa,  a  great  lawyer  and  editor,  whose 
attacks  on  the  government  had  been  very  effective, 
though  he  had  not  yet  declared  himself  a  repub- 
lican;  and  of  Admiral  Wandenkolk,  who  was  ex- 
pected to  secure  the  help  of  the  navy. 


49^ 


BRAZIL 


Deodoro  and  Constant  could  absolutely  count 
upon  one  brigade — the  second — and  were  well  as- 
sured of  the  sympathy  of  all  the  regular  forces  in 
Rio.  Of  course  the  plan  could  not  be  kept  secret 
from  the  government  police,  though  the  public 
seems   to    have  known   nothing  of  the  gravity   of 


GENERAL  BENJAMIN    CONSTANT. 
[From  a  woodcut.] 


what  was  going  on.  On  the  14th  of  November,  the 
rumour  spread  that  Deodoro  and  Constant  would 
be  arrested.  Orders  had,  in  fact,  been  given  for 
the  transfer  of  the  disaffected  brigade,  and  the  min- 
isters were  warned  that  it  was  preparing  to  resist. 
That  night  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  did  not 
sleep,  and  the  morning  found  them  still  in  anxious 
council  at  the  War  Department,  which  faces  the 
great  square  of  Rio.     Constant  had  ridden  out  to 


THE  REVOLUTION  497 

the  quarters  of  the  Second  Brigade,  and  early  in  the 
morning  led  it  to  the  square  and  drew  up  in  front  of 
the  War  Department.  Deodoro  took  command 
of  the  insurgent  troops,  sending  an  officer  to  demand 
the  surrender  of  the  ministers.  Ouro  Preto  called 
upon  the  adjutant-general,  Floriano  Peixoto,  to 
lead  against  the  revolters  the  troops  which  were  in 
the  general  barracks.  Floriano,  after  a  little  hesita- 
tion, refused,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  troops 
would  have  followed  him  had  he  consented.  There 
was  no  one  to  raise  a  hand  for  the  ministers.  They 
surrendered  and  sent  their  resignations  by  telegraph 
to  the  Emperor  at  Petropolis,  twenty-five  miles  away 
in  the  mountains.  Their  impression  seems  to  have 
been  that  the  insurrection  was.  simply  a  military  mu- 
tiny and  that  its  object  was  solely  to  secure  their 
own  downfall.  But  the  fact  that  Constant,  Bocay- 
uva,  and  others  had  been  let  into  the  inside  enabled 
these  republicans  to  direct  the  movement  so  that  a 
permanent  change  in  the  form  of  government  was 
possible. 

The  troops  in  the  barracks  joined  the  Second 
Brigade  and  all  together  marched  through  the  centre 
of  the  city  cheering  for  the  aimy,  for  Deodoro,  and 
the  republic,  amid  the  astonishment  of  the  people, 
most  of  whom  knew  nothing  of  any  trouble  until 
they  saw  the  parade.  No  resistance  was  offered, 
and  when  the  Emperor  reached  the  city  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  revolution  was  an  ac- 
complished fact.  The  chiefs  of  the  revolt  had  met 
and  organised  a  provisional  government,  naming 
themselves  ministers.     They  at  once  took  possession 


498 


BRAZIL 


of  their  different  departments  and  the  public  build- 
ings. A  decree  was  issued  announcing  that  hence- 
forth Brazil  was  to  be  a  federal  republic.  The  feeble 
old  Emperor  was  visited  by  a  few  friends,  but  there 


THE   EMPRESS   IN    iSSg. 


was  no  one  to  raise  a  hand  or  strike  a  blow  for  him 
or  the  dynasty.  He  himself  would  have  shrunk 
from  being  the  occasion  for  the  shedding  of  the 
blood  of  any  of  his  people. 

When  night  fell,  the  provisional  government  form- 
ally announced  to  the  Emperor  his  deposition,  and 
that  he  and  his  family  would  be  compelled  to  leave 


THE  REVOLUTION-  499 

the  country,  though  their  Hves  would  be  guaranteed 
and  ample  pecuniary  provision  be  made  for  them. 
The  palace  was  guarded  and  no  one  allowed  to 
enter,  though  there  were  no  indications  of  any 
counter-revolution.  The  municipal  council  of  the 
city  promptly  gave  its  adherence  to  the  new  order 
of  things,  and  telegrams  were  coming  in  hourly  from 
the  provinces  to  the  effect  that  the  latter  were  uni- 
versally satisfied  and  that  republican  sympathisers 
were  taking  possession  of  the  local  governments 
without  opposition.  During  the  night  of  the  i6th, 
the  Emperor  and  his  family  were  placed  on  board 
ship  and  sent  off  to  Lisbon. 

The  new  government  was,  in  fact,  a  centralised 
military  dictatorship,  but  the  names  of  most  of  its 
members  were  guarantees  that  the  promises  of  the 
establishment  of  a  republic  would  be  carried  out. 
In  all  the  provinces  the  new  situation  was  accepted 
peacefully.  The  Rio  government  named  new  gov- 
ernors by  telegraph,  and  the  imperial  authorities 
turned  things  over  to  them  without  resistance.  Per- 
sons known  to  have  been  advocates  of  republican 
principles  were  preferred,  and  a  rapid  displacement 
of  the  old  governing  classes  ensued. 

The  provisional  government  continued  in  power 
for  fourteen  months,  and  in  that  time  promulgated 
a  series  of  laws  touching  almost  every  subject  of 
social  or  political  interest.  The  provinces  were  or- 
ganised into  states  after  the  model  of  the  members 
of  the  North  American  Union ;  universal  suffrage 
was  established  ;  Church  and  State  were  entirely  sep- 
arated ;   civil  marriage  was  introduced ;   a  new  and 


500  BRAZIL 

humane  criminal  code  was  adopted ;  the  judicial 
system  was  reorganised  after  the  American  fashion ; 
and,  in  general,  monarchical  characteristics  were 
removed  from  the  statutes,  and  the  most  modern 
reforms  enacted.  A  project  for  a  constitution  was 
carefully  framed,  and  this  was  submitted  to  a  con- 
gress, which  had  been  summoned  to  meet  early  in 
1 891.  This  congress  was  composed  of  205  deputies, 
elected  by  states  and  not  by  districts,  and  of  three 
senators  from  each  state.  Acting  as  a  constituent 
assembly,  it  adopted  with  few  modifications  the 
constitution  proposed.  The  members  of  the  constit- 
uent congress  had  been  almost  universally  selected 
from  among  those  who  had  been  prominent  in  con- 
nection with  the  new  government,  or  had  given  it  an 
enthusiastic  adhesion.  With  few  exceptions,  the 
new  constitution  is  a  copy  of  that  of  the  United 
States.     The   only   important   difference  is  that  in 

Brazil  the  enactment  of  general  civil  and  criminal 

law  is  a  federal  and  not  a  state  attribute.  The 
revenues  of  the  newly  created  states  were  made 
much  larger  than  those  of  the  imperial  provinces, 
principally  by  transferring  to  them  the  duties  on 
exports. 

Though  the  constitution  of  February  24,  1891, 
nominally  went  into  effect  at  once,  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  government  continued  military.  Deodoro 
was  elected  president,  and  Marshal  Floriano  Peixoto 
vice-president,  and  the  dictatorship  was  effective, 
except  so  far  as  it  was  managed  and  controlled  by 
a  few  leaders  who  had  power  in  the  army,  navy,  or 
financial  world.     The  provisional  government  had 


THE  DICTATORSHIP  50 1 

conceded  to  banks  in  every  important  centre  of  the 
country  the  right  to  issue  circulating  notes.  The 
markets  were  flooded  with  money ;  credit  was  easy ; 
an  extraordinary  speculative  boom  set  in ;  values 
rose  tremendously.  The  last  years  of  the  empire 
had  been  prosperous  and  exchange  had  gone  to  par. 
Within  three  years  after  the  empire  was  overthrown, 
the  amount  of  paper  money  in  circulation  was  more 
than  tripled,  but  though  exchange  had  fallen  tre- 
mendously, no  ill  effects  were  yet  apparent.  The 
nation  was  drunk  with  suddenly  acquired  wealth. 
Companies  of  all  sorts  were  granted  government 
concessions — railroad  companies,  mining  companies, 
harbour  improvement  companies,  banks,  factories, 
and  even  sugar  and  coffee  plantation  companies. 
The  price  of  coffee  and  rubber  was  rising  in  gold, 
while  the  cost  of  production  was  falling  with  the 
depreciation  of  the  currency.  The  flood  of  Italian 
immigration  which  had  been  going  to  the  Argentine 
was  largely  diverted  to  Brazil.  Rio,  Para,  and  Sao 
Paulo  were  the  centres  of  the  prosperity.  Business 
men  from  the  provinces  swarmed  into  these  cities, 
and  the  fortunate  owners  of  plantations  emigrated 
to  Paris  to  spend  their  easily  acquired  wealth. 

During  1891  and  1892  Deodoro  became  involved 
in  disputes  with  republican  leaders.  To  these  po- 
litical difificulties  were  added  quarrels  over  the  gov- 
ernment concessions  which  were  expected  to  make 
every  one  rich.  Deodoro  offended  the  moneyed 
powers  by  not  granting  such  concessions  as  freely 
as  was  desired  by  many  influential  persons.  Finally 
Deodoro  found  that  he  could  no  longer  count  on  a 


502  BRAZIL 

majority  in  Congress,  so  he  arbitrarily  dissolved  it. 
But  revolutions  broke  out  in  the  different  states 
against  the  governors  who  stood  by  the  dictator, 
and  he  also  found  that  he  could  not  rely  upon 
the  unquestioning  support  of  the  army.  The  navy 
was  decidedly  disaffected.  After  some  hesitation 
he  yielded  to  the  signed  demand  of  a  powerful  junta 
and  resigned  in  favour  of  the  vice-president,  whom 
the  speculators  and  promoters  thought  they  could 
easily  control.  They  were  grievously  disappointed 
in  Florrano.  The  radical  republicans  found  him 
more  to  their  liking  than  did  the  wealthier  classes 
and  the  bureaucrats.  The  navy  has  always  been  re- 
cruited among  the  aristocrats  and  looked  down  upon 
the  army  and  soon  developed  a  dislike  for  the  plebe- 
ian and  illiterate  president.  An  effort  was  made  to 
pass  and  put  into  effect  a  law  expelling  Floriano 
from  office  before  the  expiration  of  the  four-years' 
term  for  which  Deodoro  and  he  had  been  elected, 
but  he  flatly  announced  that  he  would  serve  out  the 
term  to  which  he  believed  himself  constitutionally 
entitled. 

In  the  meantime  a  rebellion  had  broken  out  in 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul  against  Julio  de  Castilhos,  the 
radical  republican  governor.  Caspar  Silveira  Mar- 
tims,  the  local  leader  of  the  old  Liberal  party,  had 
been  banished,  but  from  Montevideo  he  organised 
the  insurrection.  The  adherents  of  the  two  histori- 
cal imperial  parlies  and  the  gauchos  of  the  southern 
part  of  the  state  joined  the  movement  enthusiasti- 
cally. Presently  the  pampas  were  swept  from  one 
end  to  the   other   by   bands    of    federalists,   under 


THE   DICTATORSHIP  503 

dreaded  leaders  like  Gomercindo  Saraiva,  a  ranch- 
man fro'.n  near  the  Uruguayan  border.  The  re- 
publicans stood  firm,  and  Pinheiro  Machado  and 
other  gaucho  chiefs  showed  that  they,  too,  possessed 
the  fighting  qualities  which  have  always  distin- 
guished the  hard-riding,  meat-eating  Rio  Granden- 
ses.  With  the  aid  of  federal  troops  the  republicans 
had  decidedly  the  upper  hand,  but  the  federalists 
kept  the  field  for  three  years,  while  the  country  was 
harried  and  the  most  frightful  destruction  of  life  and 
property  took  place. 

Meanwhile  the  intriguers  against  Floriano  at  Rio 
took  advantage  of  this  formidable  complication. 
The  mercantile  classes,  the  Conservatives,  the  mod- 
erate republicans,  and  those  who  regretted  the  em- 
pire were  opposed  to  him.  The  navy  was  ready  to 
revolt  at  any  time.  A  number  of  powerful  men  had 
bluffed  Deodoro  into  resigning,  and  they  thought 
that  they  could  easily  do  the  same  with  Floriano.  A 
majority  in  Congress  was  against  him  and  he  seemed 
to  be  almost  isolated.  But  he  had  no  thought  of 
yielding  or  withdrawing.  His  subsequent  actions 
show  that  he  certainly  was  not  actuated  by  any 
vaulting  personal  ambition.  His  was  rather  the  in- 
stinct of  a  soldier  who  stands  where  he  is  and  fights 
to  the  last  without  reasoning  why.  The  real  crisis 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Republic  had,  in  fact, 
arrived.  Floriano's  overthrow  would  have  meant 
anarchy  and  disintegration,  government  by  pronun- 
ciamento,  short-lived  administrations  established  and 
overthrown  by  military  force. 

Early  in  September,  1893,  the  entire  navy,  under 


504  BRAZIL 

the  lead  of  Admiral  Mello,  revolted.  The  guns  of 
the  fleet  commanded  the  harbour  and  seemed  to 
make  the  city  untenable.  Floriano  acted  with  great 
energy.  The  army  stood  by  him  and  he  recruited 
vigorously.  The  fleet  would  not  seriously  bombard 
the  city,  full  of  sympathisers  with  the  revolt,  and 
Floriano  held  the  fortifications  around  the  bay  so 
that  it  was  diflficult  for  Mello  to  obtain  supplies. 
Though  the  European  naval  forces,  which  quickly 
assembled,  sympathised  with  the  insurgents,  they 
could  hardly  give  any  efficient  help  so  long  as 
Floriano  held  the  capital.  Mello  hesitated  about 
attempting  to  establish  a  blockade.  At  first  the 
insurgents  disclaimed  any  intention  of  re-establishing 
the  empire,  but  soon  the  revolt  began  to  take  on  a 
frankly  monarchical  character.  The  friends  of  the 
old  regime,  however,  nowhere  showed  the  same 
energy  and  conviction  as  the  republicans  who  stood 
by  Floriano. 

In  Rio  harbour  matters  came  to  a  stand.  Neither 
side  could  deal  a  decisive  blow  to  the  other,  but  in 
the  end  Floriano  and  the  land  forces  were  sure  to 
win,  because  without  a  base  of  supplies  the  fleet 
could  not  maintain  itself  indefinitely.  It  was  neces- 
sary for  Mello  to  start  a  fire  in  the  rear  and  to  open 
communication  with  the  Rio  Grande  federalists. 
He  escaped  through  the  harbour  entrance  with  one 
of  his  ironclads,  and  went  to  Santa  Catharina,  where 
he  established  the  seat  of  the  revolutionary  goyern- 
ment.  Gomercindo  Saraiva,  the  able  federalist  chief, 
eluded  the,superior  republican  forces  in  the  north  of 
Rio  Grande  and  attempted  an  invasion  of  Santa  Cath- 


5o6  BRAZIL 

arina,  Parana,  and  Sao  Paulo,  where  it  was  hoped 
that  the  monarchical  plantation  owners  would  rise. 
But  he  was  vigorously  pursued  and  his  forces  de- 
feated and  scattered.  The  failure  of  this  daring 
expedition  was  the  death-knell  of  the  revolt.  Mello 
returned  to  Rio  and  there  his  position  fast  became 
untenable.  The  final  crisis  came  with  the  refusal  of 
the  American  admiral  to  permit  him  to  establish  a 
commercial  blockade.  This  took  away  his  last  hope 
of  being  able  to  coerce  Floriano  to  terms.  The 
naval  revolt  collapsed  in  March,  1894:  some  of  the 
ironclads  escaped  from  Rio  harbour  and  fled  to 
Santa  Catharina,  where  they  were  captured  by  the 
republicans.  The  Rio  Grande  federalists  kept  up 
a  partisan  warfare  for  a  few  months  longer,  but  by 
1895  they  were  completely  stamped  out. 

Floriano  was  supreme,  but  instead  of  establishing 
a  permanent  military  dictatorship  he  declined  to  be 
a  candidate  for  re-election,  and  selected  Prudente 
Moraes  as  his  successor  for  the  term  beginning  in 
1894.  Prudente  had  been  one  of  the  two  republi- 
can deputies  elected  from  Sao  Paulo  in  1886,  and 
had  acted  as  president  of  the  Constitutional  As- 
sembly which  framed  the  new  constitution.  Mod- 
erate and  conservative  in  his  opinions  and  methods, 
his  selection  was  a  recognition  of  the  advisability  of 
civil  government  and  an  abandonment  of  the  system 
of  military  dictatorship.  With  his  assumption  of 
ofifice  the  Republic  may  be  said  to  have  been  at  last 
definitely  established. 

The  state  governments  were  now  functioning 
regularly,  and  their  governors  soon  began  to  assume 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF    THE   REPUBLIC     507 

a  great  importance  in  the  political  system.  These 
executives  are  selected  by  local  cliques  instead  of 
by  the  central  government,  as  in  imperial  times; 
their  command  of  the  police  and  state  patronage 
enables  them  to  control  elections,  name  their  own 
successors,  and  exercise  a  predominant  influence  in 
the  choice  of  deputies  and  senators  to  the  national 
Congress.  They  are  the  chief  instruments  through 
which  the  president's  control  of  politics  is  exercised. 

The  majority  in  Congress,  composed  of  the  leaders 
of  the  republican  movement,  and  known  as  the  Fed- 
eral Republican  party,  supported  Prudente  in  the 
early  part  of  his  administration,  but  he  was  too  lib- 
eral to  suit  the  Radicals  in  drawing  into  participation 
in  public  affairs  capable  Brazilians  of  other  ante- 
cedents. This  policy  and  the  jealousies  that  always 
arise  in  a  dominant  party  brought  about  a  rupture 
between  him  and  the  leader  of  the  House  majority. 
Tn  the  trial  of  strength  which  followed,  the  Federal 
Republican  party  was  split,  and  though  the  presi- 
dent was  victorious  by  a  small  margin,  his  position 
became  very  precarious. 

The  Republic  had  started  out  on  a  scale  of  unpre- 
cedented extravagance.  The  old  provincial  govern- 
ments had  been  given  only  the  fragments  from  the 
imperial  table,  but  the  republican  constitution  mult- 
iplied the  revenues  of  the  new  states  many  fold. 
The  issues  of  paper  money,  the  high  prices  of  cof- 
fee and  rubber,  and  the  speculative  boom  gave  both 
state  and  federal  government  for  a  while  plenty  of 
money  to  spend.  The  Union  and  the  states  vied 
with  each  other  in  multiplying  employees,  in  making 


5o8  BRAZIL 

loans,  in  spending  money  on  public  edifices,  and  in 
building  and  guaranteeing  railroads.  The  larger  the 
deficits  grew  the  more  paper  money  was  issued,  and 
exchange  fell  with  sickening  rapidity.  A  larger  and 
larger  proportion  of  the  paper  revenue  had  to  be 
devoted  to  the  purchase  of  gold  bills  for  the  payment 
of  the  interest  on  the  foreign  debt.  The  deficits  in 
creased  in  geometrical  progression.  By  1895  signs 
of  the  coming  trouble  were  apparent,  though  the 
business  of  the  country  was  still  prosperous.  In 
1896  came  an  outbreak  of  religious  fanaticism  in  the 
interior  of  Bahia,  which  grew  into  an  armed  revolt 
— small,  it  is  true,  but  which  cost  much  money  to 
suppress.  The  necessity  for  retrenchment  was  evi- 
dent;  railroad  building  was  interrupted;  schemes 
to  rehabilitate  the  currency  were  brought  forward 
and  discussed. 

The  governments  of  the  poorer  states  looked  for 
help  to  the  impoverished  federal  treasury,  and  some 
of  the  stronger  states  showed  impatience  at  being 
hampered  by  an  unprofitable  connection  with  their 
weak  sisters.  The  president  was  not  on  sympathetic 
terms  with  the  victorious  Radicals  in  Rio  Grande, 
and  the  uncompromising  republicans  all  over  the 
Union  felt  that  they  were  not  sufficiently  favoured. 
In  the  fall  of  1897  an  attempt  was  made  in  broad 
daylight  to  assassinate  Prudente,  and  prominent  op- 
position  politicians  were  strongly  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  the  plot.  A  state  of  siege  was  declared, 
but  the  country  remained  quiet,  and  no  serious  op- 
position was  apparent  when  Prudente  announced 
that  his  support  would  be  given  to  Campos  Salles  as 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF    THE  REPUBLIC     509 

his  successor  in  office  and  presumably  the  continuer 
of  his  policies. 

A  great  drop  in  the  price  of  coffee  began,  and 
the  financial  situation  of  the  government  grew  worse 
and  worse.  Brazil  grows  about  two-thirds  of  the 
world's  coffee  and  her  crop  was  enormously  increas- 
ing. Consequently  the  production  of  coffee  was 
outrunning  the  world's  consuming  capacity.  The 
enormous  profits  of  preceding  years  and  the  abund- 
ant supply  of  good  Italian  labour  had  stimulated 
planting  beyond  all  reason.  New  and  fertile  dis- 
tricts were  opened  up  in  the  interior  of  Sao  Paulo, 
with  which  the  older  plantations  of  Rio  and  the 
coast  regions  could  not  compete.  The  poorer  dis- 
tricts were  reduced  to  poverty,  while  even  the  more 
fertile  could  not  hold  their  own. 

In  government  finances  the  lowest  point  was 
reached  in  1898.  The  paper  money  had  fallen  to 
seventy-nine  per  cent,  below  par  and  it  had  become 
clearly  impossible  to  continue  payments  on  the 
foreign  debt.  The  last  act  of  Prudente's  adminis- 
tration was  to  make  an  agreement  by  which  the 
foreign  creditors  consented  to  waive  the  receipt  of 
their  interest  for  three  years  and  the  government 
pledged  itself  to  reduce  the  volume  of  paper  currency 
and  to  accumulate  a  fund  for  the  resumption  of 
interest  payments. 

No  contest  was  made  against  Campos  Salles's  elec- 
tion in  the  spring  of  1898.  He  took  office  finding 
an  empty  treasury,  a  government  without  financial 
credit,  and  the  country  in  the  midst  of  a  severe 
commercial  crisis.     He  showed  great  shrewdness  in 


5IO 


BRAZIL 


maintaining  an  ascendancy  over  the  politicians  and 
controlling  a  majority  in  both  branches  of  Congress, 
and,  through  his  minister  of  finance,  relentlessly 
followed  the  policy  of  contracting  the  currency  and 
increasing  taxes.  In  1901  the  payment  of  interest 
on  the  foreign  debt  was  resumed,  and  though  that 


CAMPOS    SALl.ES. 
[From  a  wood-cut.] 

debt  had  been  increased  fifty  million  dollars  the  cur- 
rency  had  doubled  in  value  and  become  relatively 
stable.  The  state  governments  are  more  dependent 
on  the  Union  than  in  the  days  of  their  wealth  ;  there 
is  little  present  danger  of  disintegration ;  no  real 
sentiment  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  empire 
exists.  The  same  habits  of  political  subordination 
which  have  kept  Brazil  together  so  long  are  increas- 
ing rather  than  diminishinp;  in  force. 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF   THE  REPUBLIC     51I 

The  commercial  crisis  and  the  high  taxes  have 
created  great  discontent  among  merchants.  Coffee- 
planters  and  rubber-gatherers  have  still  further  suf- 
fered by  the  rise  of  the  currency.  Immigration  has 
practically  ceased,  and  there  is  little  water  left  in 
speculative  enterprises.  The  great  Bank  of  the  Re- 
public failed  in  1900,  dragging  down  many  industrial 
concerns  and  ruining  thousands  of  small  investors, 
and  the  government's  connection  with  the  bank 
caused  much  scandal.  Other  banks,  which  had  too 
much  extended  their  agricultural  and  industrial 
credits,  have  also  failed,  and  there  is  great  want  of 
confidence  among  investors.  However,  capital  is 
slowly  accumulating,  and  a  healthful  tendency  to- 
ward industrious  habits  and  the  employment  of 
reasonable  and  moderate  methods  in  exploiting  the 
great  untouched  natural  resources  of  the  country  is 
evident. 

Rodrigues  Alves,  the  third  civil  president  of  the 
Republic,  was  peaceably  elected  in  the  spring  of 
1902,  and  took  his  seat  on  November  15th,  the  thir- 
teenth anniversary  of  the  Republic.  Like  both  his 
predecessors  he  is  from  Sao  Paulo,  and  was  virtually 
named  by  his  immediate  predecessor.  His  policy 
is  expected  to  be  the  same  as  Campos  Salles's — that 
is,  to  keep  expenses  within  revenue  and  to  maintain 
the  political  status  quo. 

Leaving  out  immigration,  the  Brazilian  people 
have  shown  a  steady  natural  increase  of  nearly  two 
per  cent,  per  annum  during  this  century.  The  total 
population  has  multiplied  from  less  than  three  to 
more  than  eighteen  millions.     Not  a  fiftieth  part  of 


512  BRAZIL 

the  territory  is  cultivated ;  its  resources  have  never 
been  studied,  much  less  developed ;  the  positive 
checks  hardly  exist ;  the  preventive  checks  are  yet 
indefinitely  remote.  Modern  altruism  makes  wars 
of  extermination  unthinkable;  the  colonial  experi- 
ences of  the  last  century  have  demonstrated  that 
races  possessing  a  reasonably  efficient  industrial  or- 
ganisation do  not  tend  to  disappear,  even  though 
nations  whose  physical  force  is  greater  may  reduce 
them  to  political  subordination.  The  Brazilians 
have  the  additional  advantage  of  inheriting  directly 
a  European  civilisation.  They  are  too  firmly  estab- 
lished, too  numerous  and  prolific,  and  possess  a  too 
highly  organised  and  deeply  rooted  civilisation  to  be 
in  danger  of  expulsion  or  political  absorption.  Im- 
mense immigration  into  South  America  is  inevitable, 
as  soon  as  the  pressure  of  population  is  strongly 
felt  in  Western  Europe  and  North  America.  This 
may  transform  Brazil  economically,  but  the  new  con- 
ditions will  have  to  fit  themselves  into  the  political 
and  social  framework  already  in  existence. 


INDEX 


Absolutism,  of  King  of  Castile 
in  America,  53  ;  of  Francia, 
192;  of  Lopez,  199,  201;  of 
John  II.,  293  ;  of  Pombal, 
397;  of  Pedro  I.,  421,  424; 
revolt  against,  411,  412 

"  Adelantados,"  23,  34,  166 

Affonso  Celso,  492 

Agassiz,  Louis,  306 

Agricultural  methods,  33S,  394, 
406,  467 

Alagoas,  309,  355,  405 

Albuquerque,  Jeronymo  de,  343, 

345.  354,  355 
Alcacer-Kibir,  battle  of,  322,  342 
Alvarengo  Peixoto,  poet,  399 
Alvarengo,  Silva,  poet,  399 
Alvear,  General  Carlos,  leader  in 
Buenos    Aires,    96,    102  ;    ex- 
iled, 103  ;  in  battle  of  Ituzain- 
go,  120,  261,  429  ;  ^Montevideo 
surrenders  to,  255 
Amazon,  the,  estuary  discovered, 
301;    extent    navigable,    30S  ; 
explored,  344,  371;  settlements 
along,  374  ;   Upper,  3S2,  392 
Amazonas,  state  of,  405,  490 
Anchieta,  Padre,  329,  336 
Anti-foreign     sentiment    among 
Creoles,  in  Argentina,  34,  86, 
267 ;    in     Uruguay,     267 ;     in 
Brazil,  396,  417,  423,  426,  432, 
433.  439,  442,  455 

VOL.  I.— 33. 


Araguaya  River,  310,  392 

Arawak  Indians,  300 

Architecture,  341 

Argentina,  37-161  ;  settlement 
of,  14,  15,  17,  18,  22,  24,  29, 
32,  43;  rainfall  in,  40;  agri- 
culture and  grazing  in,  40,  43  ; 
climate  in,  41;  area  of,  43; 
prosperity  of,  45,  144,  148; 
exports  of,  49,  14S,  159  ;  popu- 
lation of,  79,  131,  143,  147. 
185;  national  colours  of,  90, 
independence  of,  90,  96,  100. 
104 ;  revolt  of  May  25,  1810. 
90,  188,  252,  407  ;  federalism 
in,  94,  115,  130,  132,  136,  138, 
148,  255  ;  proposals  to  make 
it  a  monarchy,  104  ;  civil  wars 
in,  115  et  st'ij.;  war  with  Brazil. 
120,  129,  260,  427,  42S,  462; 
constitution  of,  134,  137,  138 ; 
industrial  development  in,  141, 
160 ;  war  with  Paraguay,  141, 
142,  189,  200,  206-219,  276, 
471  ;  finances  of,  149-153, 
156,  157,  160  ;  war  with  Chile 
threatened,  156  ;  war  with 
Uruguay,  255,  267 

Arroyo  Grande,  battle  of,  268 

Artigas,  Jose,  92,  105,  252-258, 
407,  408 

Assassinations,  277,  281,  379,  508 

Asuncion,  22,  33  ;  founded,  25, 
165  ;  way  opened  to,  143 ;  in 
pos-iession  of  Brazil,  475 


513 


514 


INDEX 


Audiencia,  of  Charcas,  i6,  53,  61, 

176;  of  Buenos  Aires,  84 
Ayohuma,  battle  of,  97 
Azores,  8,  292,  346,  387,  412 


B 


Bahia  (city),  early  settlement  of 
Brazil,  320  ;  military  and  naval 
post,  322  ;  population,  324  ; 
industries,  324,  393  ;  growth, 
347  ;  captured  by  the  Dutch, 
351;  captured  by  the  Portu- 
guese, 352  ;  place  of  refuge, 
355  ;  siege  of,  357  ;  held  by 
Portuguese,  358,  418  ;,  guerril- 
las obtain  arms  in,  362  ;  eccle- 
siastical capital,  399;  reception 
of  the  Prince  Regent,  404  ;  de- 
poses governor,  412,  436  ;  gar- 
rison re-enforced,  419  ;  expul- 
sion of  Portuguese  garrison 
from,  420 

Bahia  (province),  position,  310; 
Jesuits  in,  328  ;  population, 
338  ;  cattle-raisers  of,  372  ;  in- 
surrections in,  375  ;  gold-fields 
in,  391;  attitude  toward  "Con- 
federation of  the  Equator," 
425  ;  separatist  movement  in, 

444 

Balboa,  Nunez  de,  12 

Basques,  4,  5,  26,  30 

Beckman's  rebellion,  375 

Belgrano,  Manuel,  Creole  leader, 
89,  93  ;  expeditions  to  Para- 
guay, 91,  92,  1S8-190;  expe- 
dition to  Tucuman,  93,  94,  96  ; 
invasion  of  Bolivia,  97  ;  com- 
mission to  Spain,  104  ;  in  Uru- 
guay, 253 

Beresford,  General,  83 

Blancos,  126,  129,  266,  272  ct 
seq. 

Blandenqiies,  248 

Bohorquez.     See  Huallpa  Inca. 

Bolivar,  Simon,  loi,  iii,  112 

Bolivia  (Upper  Peru),  irrigation 
in,  14  ;  silver  in,  16,  22,  78, 
233  ;  division  of,  75  ;  gold  in, 


78  ;  inhabitants  of,  80  ;  resists 
revolutionary    movement,    91; 
Spanish  power  in,  100  ;  Ron- 
deau's effort  to  conquer,   104; 
route  to,  315 
Bom  Jesus  stockade,  354,  355 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  87,  251 
Bonaparte,    Napoleon,     86,    89, 

402 
Bonifacio  de  Andrada,  Jose,  and 
independence  of  Brazil,  416, 
421 ;  made  prime  minister,  41S; 
letters  to  Pedro,  419;  and 
brothers,  423,  432,  439,  446. 

449 

Borda,  Juan  Idiarte,  280,  281 

Botacudo  (Aymore)  Indians,  300, 
321 

Boundary  questions,  between 
Spain  and  Portugal,  66-68,  72, 
77,  172,  181,  233,  239,  244, 
245,  342,  372,  376,  387  ;  be- 
tween Argentina  and  Chile, 
156,  158  ;  between  Brazil  and 
Paraguay,  203,  208  ;  between 
Paraguay  and  Brazil  and  Ar- 
gentina, 222  ;  of  Brazil,  407, 
468 

Brazil,  287-512  ;  settlement  of, 
23,  316,  318,  319,  321,  323, 
336,  342,  372-374-  387,  397  ; 
war  with  Argentina,  120,  129, 
260,  427,  42S,  462  ;  war  with 
Uruguay,  120,  209,  256,  260, 
470;  war  with  Paraguay,  T41, 
142,  206-219,  276,  471;  area 
of,  305,  309,  310,  313,  314; 
climate,  305,  308-313  ;  rain- 
fall in,  306,  309-313  ;  popula- 
tion, 310,  314,  336,  347,  374., 
397,  405,  480,  511;  Spanish 
possession  of,  342  ;  efforts  to 
establish  republic  in,  381,  399, 
409,  476,  479,  482,  488,  492, 
495  ;  independence  of,  416. 
417,  419,  426,  427;  Constitu- 
ent Assembly  of,  419,  422,  423; 
constitution  of,  422-424,  439, 
444,  500 ;  Congress  of,  427, 
430,  432,  440,  443,  447,  449, 


INDEX 


515 


Brazil — Continued 
451,  464,  466,  475,  4S6,  500, 
507  ;  regency  in,  436  et  seq. ; 
hegemony  of,  463,  468,  476  ; 
republic  established  in,  497, 
503,  506 

Brazil-wood,  302-304,  317,  321, 
322 

Brazilian  Creoles,  at  war  with 
Spanish  Creoles,  66,  68,  105, 
240,  242,  245,  24S,  254,  256, 
3S2.  388,  389,  40S 

Brazilian  states,  power  of  gov- 
ernors of,  507 

Brazilians,  character  and  habits, 
294,  31S,  319,  323.  339,  359, 
36S,  376,  396,  399,  406,  407, 
459.  460,  464,  467,  479,  492, 
512 

Brown,  William,  Admiral,  103, 
120,  255,  261,  428 

Buenos  Aires  (city),  founded,  24, 
25,  30-32,  168  ;  foreign  com- 
merce forbidden  to,  50  ;  smug- 
gling, 60  ;  prosperity,  72  ; 
commercial  centre,  75,  78  ; 
captured  by  the  British,  83  ; 
captured  by  the  Argentine 
Creoles,  84 ;  battle  of,  85  ; 
hegemony  of,  90,  103  ;  block- 
ades of,  120,  125,  132,  262, 
269,  270  ;  detached  from  pro- 
vince, 14S 

Buenos  Aires  (province),  division 
of  Argentina.  34 ;  independ- 
ent, 61;  Indians  exiled  to,  63; 
intendencia,  75,  79 


Cabeza  de  Vaca,  26 

Cabildos,  in  Buenos  Aires,  32, 
90;  organisation  and  functions, 
53~56 ;  nationality  of  mem- 
bers, 57;  influence  of,  78,  1 19; 
in  Montevideo,  252 

Cabot,  Sebastian,   22,   165,  233, 

317 
Cabral,  Pedro  Alvares,  295 
Cacao,  78 


Cagancha,  battle  of,  26S 
Calabar  (guerrilla  chief),  355,  356 
Calchaquie  Indians,  63 
Callao,  49 
Camarrao   (guerrilla   chief),  355, 

362 
Campos  (city),  347 
Campos    Salles,    Manoel    Ferraz 

de,  488,  508-510 
Canary  Islands,   7,  8,  242,  292, 

329 
Cape  Horn,  48 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  8,  292 
Captaincies,  53,  319 
Caidenas,    Bishop   of    Paraguay, 

1S2 
Carili  Indians,    300 
Casert)s,  battle  of,   129,  271,  463 
Castillios,  Julio  de,  502 
Catamarca,  15,  63,  154 
Cattle    industry,    in    Argentina, 

17,    29,   40,    71,    131,    148;  in 

Uruguay,   238,    268,    273  ;    in 

Brazil,  310,  371-373.  39°,  393. 

406 
Caudillos,    116,    119,    138,    144, 

255 
Caxias,  Marshal,  143,  218,  452, 

453.  475 
Cayenne,  407 

Ceara,  location,  309;  settlement 
in,  345;  Dutch  control  of,  357; 
devastated,     363 ;      separated 
from    Brazil,    371  ;  surplus    of 
cattle  in,  373  ;  decline  of  cattle 
business   in,  393  ;  adhesion   to 
"  Confederation  of  the  Equa- 
tor," 425  ;   anarchy  in,  438 
Cerrito,  battle  of,  254 
Chacabuco,  battle  of,  108 
Chaco,   the,    37,    58,    213,   2371 
plains  of,  166,  186  ;   matter  of 
arbitration,  222 
Charles  IV.  of  Spain,  86 
Charrua   Indians,    71,    235,   244, 

247,  265 
Chile,  15,  42,  78,  100,  no 
Cholera  in  Brazilian  army,  216 
Cisplatine  Province,  258,  408 
City  life,  laste  for,  56 


5i6 


INDEX 


Claudio  (poet),  399 

Cochrane,  Thomas,  Admiral,  1 11, 
420,  425 

Coelho,  Duarte,  319,  328 

Coffee,  productiveness,  306,  313; 
districts  of  cultivation  of,  310, 
312,  313,  406;  increased  pro- 
duction of,  448,  458,  466,  479, 
489,  509;  plantation  compan- 
ies, 501;  trade  affected  by  rise 
of  currency,  511 

Colombia,  434 

Coloniade  Sacramento,  founded, 
68,  240,  376  ;  held  by  Portu- 
guese, 70,  72,  234,  240 ;  taken 
by  Spaniards,  77,  246,  388, 
389  ;  port,  230  ;  attacked,  245 

Colonial  governors,  corruption 
of,  56,  64,  65,  393 

Colonial  trade,  restrictions  on, 
imposed,  48,  49,  63;  evil  effects 
of,  49,  52  ;  how  enforced,  50, 
65,  71  ;  removed,  78,  88,  404  ; 
among  colonies,  82  ;  of  Brazil 
with  Portugal,  287,  336,  342, 

373,  393 
Colorados,  126,  129,  266,  272  et 

SllJ. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  8 
Commercial  routes  to  Pacific,  21, 

47,  48_ 
Concepcion  (Argentina),  116 
"Confederation  of  the  Equator," 

425 

Constant,  Benjamin,  General, 
492,  495-497 

Contraband  trade,  in  Argentina, 
51,  52,  63-66,  69,  75  ;  at  Co- 
lonia,  240,  377  ;  and  Thomas 
de  Souza,  329  ;  in  Brazil,  347, 

373,  394 

Copper,  78 

Copper-pan  amalgamation  pro- 
cess, 16 

Cordoba  (city),  founded,  30 ; 
rainfall  in,  40 ;  on  trade 
route,  50,  51  ;  prosperity  of, 
62,  63 

Cordoba  (province),  Spaniards 
pass  through,  14  ;  settled,  15  ; 


intendencia,  75  ;  Indian  stock 
in,  So;  revolution  in,  91,  154; 
military  state,  121  ;  governor 
expelled,  123 

Corrientes  (city),  founded,  33  ; 
defence  of,  58  ;  desire  for  in- 
dependence, 116 

Corrientes  (province),  flourisii- 
ing,  34;  ravaged  by  war,  130, 
135;  troubles  in,  154;  mis- 
sions in,  186  ;  Belgrano  in, 
188;  invasion  of,  210;  rela- 
tions with  Artigas,  255  ;  alli- 
ance with  Rivera,  267 

Cortes,  Hernando,  12,  20 

Cortes  (Portuguese  Parliament), 
291,  412,  415,  416,  418 

Cotegipe,  Baron  of,  490,  491 

Cotton,  cultivation  of,  14,  41, 
309,  310,  371,  448  ;  manufact- 
ure, 170,  371,  406  ;  trade,  405 

Council  of  the  Indies,  53 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  366 

Cruelties    in    war,    91,   93,    276, 

384 
Cuestas,  Juan  L.,  28 1 
Curitiba,  172 
Curupayty,   battle  of,    142,    215, 

475  , 

Cuyaba,  391 

Cuyo,  province  of  Argentina,  15, 
64  ;  industries  in,  17  ;  political 
dependency,  17,  33  ;  detached 
from  Chile,  74  ;  products  of, 
78  ;  inhabitants  of,  102  ;  ruler 
of,  121,  123 

Cuzco,  41 

D 

December   27,    1868,   battle   of, 

219 
Democracy,    56,     81,    83,     432, 

.437 
Diamond  mining,  392,  397 
Dias,  Henrique,  355,  362 
Diaz,  Bartholomew,  293 
Discoveries,  8,  12,  19,  296 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  47 
Drugs,  49 


INDEX 


5'7 


Duarte     Coelho.       See    Coelho, 

Duarte. 
Duguay-Trouiii,  Admiral,  3S4 
Durao,  Santa    Rita.     See  Santa 

Rita  Durao. 


E 


Education,  popular,  73 ;  lack 
of,  among  Brazilians,  396 ; 
encouraged  in  Brazil,  39S  ; 
schools,  404,  406,  44S  ;  desire 
for,  409 

Elections,  in  Argentina,  140, 
143,  146,  154;  in  Uruguay, 
2S0 ;  in  Brazil,  464,  475,  47S, 

485-487,489,  495.  507 

Emancipation  of  slaves,  in  Para- 
guay, 199  ;  in  Brazil,  456,  461, 
476,  479,  4S1,  482,  490,  491 

Emboaba  rebellion,  379 

Encomiendas,  165 

Entre  Rios,  province  of  Argen- 
tina, 34 ;  Indians  in,  62,  71, 
74,  186  ;  gauchos  in,  92,  236, 
244,  254,  255  ;  governor  of, 
128  ;  revolutionary  movement 
in,  188 ;  independent,  270 ; 
ruler  of,  471,  472 

Espirito  Santo,  310,  333,  338, 
347 


Federalist  party,  119,  12^,  123, 
126,  263 

Feijo,  Padre,  Regent  ol  Brazil, 
432,  433,  437,  440,  443 

Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain,  87, 
90,  93,  96,  411 

Fernandes  Vieira,  361  et  seq. 

Flores,  Venancio,  leader  of  revo- 
lutionists in  Uruguay,  208, 
468  ;  ruler  of  Uruguay,  212, 
273  ;  government  of  his  own, 
274 ;  in  war  against  Para- 
guay, 276  ;  death,  277 

Fonseca,  Deodoro  da,  493-497, 
500,  501 

Foreign  debts,  of  Argentina,  in- 


creased, 144,  160,  how  met, 
149,  152.  157,  160,  161  ;  of 
Uruguay,  doubled,  277,  280; 
of  Brazil,  increased,  464,  474, 
509,   how  met,  4S0,  489,  510 

France,  intervenes  in  Uruguayan 
civil  war,  269  ;  poaches,  304, 
317;  French  traders  in  Brazil, 
322,  329,  343 ;  settlement  at 
R'o.  333  ;  measures  to  expel, 
from  Rio,  335  ;  attempts  to 
colonise  Maranhao,  345  ;  takes 
Rio,  383  ;  ministers  of,  with 
Pedro  I.,  434 

Francia,  Jose  Caspar,  190-197, 
256,  258 

Franciscans,  58,  169,  182 

Free  Masonry,  409,  415,  484 

French  Revolution,  82 


G 


Gama,  Basilio  da,  poet,  399 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  295 

Garay,  Juan  de,  founder  of  Bue- 
nos Aires,  30-33,  58,  237 

Garcia,  Aleixo,  316 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  270,  442 

Gauchos,  origin  of,  8r;  element 
in  Argentine  army,  94,  116; 
defend  Bolivian  frontier,  loi, 
104  ;  in  Entre  Rios,  236,  244  ; 
Uruguayan,  248,  279,  442  ;  in 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  502 

Glycerio,  Francisco,  495 

Goes,  Zacarias  de,  466 

Gold,  in  Africa,  8  ;  in  Hayti,  10, 
12;  Spain's  desire  for,  49;  value 
of,  50  ;  in  Peru,  78  ;  in  Brazil, 
310,  378-3S0,  39i-393>  397. 
405 

Gonzaga,  poet,  399 

Goyaz,  310,  313,  348,  372 

Great  Britain,  fleet  of,  before 
Montevideo,  83-86  ;  gunboats 
of,  hold  Paraguayan  flagship, 
204  ;  captured  Buenos  Aires, 
248  ;  besiege  fvlontevideo,  250, 
251;  blockade  Buenos  Aires, 
269 ;     filibustering    of,    along 


5i8 


INDEX 


Great  Britain — Continued 

Brazilian  coast,  343  ;  importa- 
tions of,  into  Brazil,  405,  459; 
ministers  of,  434  ;  relations 
with  Brazil,  456 

Guarany    (Tupi),     Indians,    42, 
297 

Giiararapes,  battle  of,  364 

Guayabos,  battle  of,  255 

Guayaquil,  i  [  2 

Guayra  cataract,  171,  178,  179 

Guayra  province,    173,  177,  iSo 


H 


Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  222 
Hayti,  lo,,  12 
Henry  the  Navigator,  292 
Hernandarias  Saavedra,  58,  174, 

237 
Heyn,  Piet,  Admiral,  352 
Hides,  49,  60,  78,  148,  241 
Holland,  309,  343,  350  et  seq. 
Horses,  32,  33,  43,  131,  238 
Huallpa  Inca  (Bohorquez),  63 
Huaqui,  battle  of,  92,  253 
Huguenots,  334,  345 
Humaita,  207,  212-218,  475 


Tguassu  River,  67,  l8c 
Ilheos,  320,  344 

Immigration,  into  Argentina,  45, 
130,   136,    141,   144,  159;  into 
Paraguay,  222  ,  into  Uruguay, 
268,    276,    27S  ;     into    Brazil, 
339,  346,  404,  40S,  463,  490, 
501,  512 
Incas,  13,  14,  41,  42 
Indian  corn,  41,  306,  310 
Indian    language,   iS,    166,  300, 

331 
Indian  wars,  with  Guaranies, 
29  ;  with  inferior  tribes,  43  ; 
with  Andean,  58,  59  ;  in  Ar- 
gentine, 62,  124,  145  ;  in  Uru- 
guay, 62,  232,  234,  237  ;  with 
Calchaquies,  63  ;  Paulistas' 
raids,  67,  72,   170,  173,  348  ; 


with  Charruas,  71,  244  ;  in  the 
plains  of  the  Chaco,  166  ;  with 
Aymbres,  321,  335",  with 
Tamoyos,  331  ;  in  Brazil,  333, 

3-13-  373         .     . 

Indians,  flourishing  communi- 
ties, 18  ;  Irala's  dealing  with. 
27  ;  Andean  and  inferior 
tribes  42  ;  Jesuits  and,  73,  74, 
173-  331  ;  civilised,  168,  405  ; 
evangelisation  of,  170,  173, 
327;  social  status  of,  184  ;  em- 
ployment, 185  ;  Cabral  and, 
297;  relations  with  the  French, 
333.  335  ;   Brazilian,  298-300 

Indigo,  405 

Intendencias,   75 

Intermixture  with  Indians,  in 
coast  provinces,  18  ;  in  Ar- 
gentina, 45,  80;  in  Paraguay, 
166,  192  ;  in  Jesuit  Republic, 
1S7  ;  in  Brazil,  318,  346,  39S 

Irrigation,  14,  42 

Isabel,  Princess  of  Brazil,  456, 
457,  484,  490,  494 

Itamarica,  317,  319,  355,  363 

Ituzaingo,  battle  of,  120,  26r, 
429 


J 


Januaria,  Princess  of  Brazil,  445, 
446 

January  19,  181 1,  battle  of,  189 

Jesuits,  their  work  in  Paraguay, 
34,  170-176;  republic,  60,  73, 
74,  177;  and  Bohorquez,  64; 
and  Paulistas,  66-68,  72,  347, 
348  ;  their  wt)rk  in  Uruguay, 
71,  238,  245  ;  their  work  in 
Brazil,  169,  326  et  seq.;  mis- 
sions in  northern  Brazil,  374  ; 
missions  on  Amazon,  374,  382, 
392  ;    Pombal  and,  397 

Jews,  353.  358 

John  VI.  of  Portugal  and  Brazil, 
his  troops  defeat  Artigas,  105  ; 
withdraws  troops  from  Uru- 
guay, 254  ;  relations  with  Na- 
poleon,   402  ;    flight    to    Rio, 


INDEX 


519 


John  VI.  —  Continued 

403,  404  ;  Brazil's  fureign  re- 
lations uniler,  407  ;  called  back 
to  Portugal,  411  ;  unsupiiortetl 
by  Brazil,  412  ;  in  fear  of  the 
people,  413 ;  news  of  his 
death,  428 

Jujuy,  15,  94 

Juncal,  battle  of,  120,  262 


Labour,  enforced,  194,  201 

Laguna,  3S6 

Land  grants,  56,  33S,  390,  406 

Las  Piedras,  battle  of,  92,  253 

Latorre,  Lorenzo,  277 

Lautaro  society,  96 

Lavalle,  General,  268 

Lavalleja,  General,  256,  259, 
261,  262 

Lima,  16,  51 

Liniers,  General,  83,  85,  87,  91, 
251 

Local  self-government,  strong 
sentiment  in  favour  of,  34 ; 
right  of,  115  ;  struggles  for, 
380;  effected,  401,  402,  439, 
454 ;  impaired,  444 

Lopez  IL,  unnatural  cruelties 
of,  221 

Lopez,  Carlos  Antonio,  Presi- 
dent of  Paraguay,  199-205 

Lopez,  F"rancisco  Solano,  141, 
204-221,  274,  470 

Lynch,  Madame,  206 

M 

Madeira  Islands,  8,  37,  292,  361, 

412 
Madeira  River,  314,  391,  392 
Magellan,  Fernando,  20,  21,  232 
Magellan,  Strait  of,  21,  47 
Maldonado,  230,  242,  250 
Mandioc,  41,  306,  310,  371 
Maranhao,     location     of,     309 ; 
French    attempt    to    colonise, 
345  ;  captured  by  the  Brazilian 
Creoles,     346 ;     occupied     by 


Maurice,  357  ;  revolt  in,  362, 
375  ;     new   state,    371  ;    Jesu- 
its in,  374  ;  development  hin- 
dered, 393  ;  takes  a  new  start, 
397;  Portuguese  expelled  from, 
420 ;  not  represented  in  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  422  ;  adhe- 
sion to  "Confederation  of  the 
Equator,"  425  ;    civil  war    in, 
438  ;  revolution  in,  446,  452 
Maria  Gloria  of  Portugal,  428 
Mascate  rebellion,  381 
Matte  (Paraguayan)  tea,  78 
Matto  Grosso,  seized  by  Lopez, 
142,    210;    at    the    mercy    of 
Lopez,  208;  location  of,  314; 
beginning   of   the  state,   391  ; 
expedition  against,  471  ;  safety 
of,  assured,  476 
Maurice  of  Nassau,  356 
Mello,  Admiral,  504,  505 
Mem  da  Sa,  335,  337 
Mendoza,  Pedro  de,  23,  165,  236 
Mendoza  (city),  15,  41,  64,  106 
Miguel,  pretender  to  Portuguese 

crown,  428,  439 
Military  operations  among  un- 
civilised Indians,  1 8,  26 
Minas  Geraes,  location  of,  310, 
description  of,  311,  313;  gold 
in,  379,  391.  392,  397  ;  popu- 
lation of,  397  ;  literature  in, 
399  ;  attitude  of,  toward  Pedro 
L>    433>    438  ;    revolution    in, 

^53 

Missions,  negotiations  concern- 
ing, 72,  77,  186,  245,  246,  3S8, 
390 ;  attacked,  105  ;  estab- 
lished in  Paraguay,  180  ;  con- 
quered by  Rio  Grandenses, 
248  ;  loyal  to  Artigas,  255  ;  in- 
vaded, 407 
.Mitre,  Bartolome,  resistance  of 
Rioja  to,  64 ;  historian,  98  ; 
established  civil  government 
in  Buenos  Aires,  126  ;  on  Ar- 
gentine constitution,  137  ;  in 
Paraguayan  war,  141,  142,  153, 
160,  471  ;   party  leader,  154 

Mohammedanism,  325 


520 


INDEX 


Monopolies,  of  Cadiz  merchants, 
48,  50,  51,  82;  Portuguese, 
374,  393  ;  abolished,  397,  404. 

Montevideo,  harbours,  31,  241  ; 
taken  by  the  Spanish,  70 ; 
population  of,  78  ;  sieges  of, 
92,  250,  253,  254,  269 ;  cap- 
tured by  the  patriots,  103, 
255  ;  captured  by  the  Portu- 
guese, 105,  408  ;  named,  232  ; 
fortified,  242 ;  captured  by 
the  British,  250 ;  blockaded, 
276 ;  founded,  386 ;  Portu- 
guese garrison  expelled  from, 
420 

Montoya,  Father,  178 

Moors,  3-5,  288,  290 

Moraes,  Prudente,  President, 
488,  506,  507,  508 

Mules,  trade  in,  63 

Municipal  government,  charac- 
teristic of  Spain,  3,  53  ;  adap- 
tation of,  44 ;  Spanish  form 
of,  54  ;  in  Portugal,  290,  291  ; 
of  Bahia,  325 ;  granted  to 
Brazilian  towns,  374  ;  charac- 
ter of,  424 

N 

Nabuco,  Joaquim,  481 

Napoleon  Bonaparte.  See  Bona- 
parte, Napoleon. 

Natal,  344 

Negroes,  102,  105,  311,  375,  405 

New  Granada,  100 

Nobrega,  Padre  Manuel,  326, 
32S,  330 

O 

Office-holding,  52,  409,  459 
O'Higgins,  Bernard,  109,  iii 
Ojeda,  Alonso  de,  301 
Orellana,      discoverer      of     the 

Amazon,  344 
Oribe,   Manuel,  retreat  of,  256  ; 

president    of    Uruguay,    265  ; 

leader  of  party, '265,  267,  461  ; 

defeated  Argentine  unitarians, 

268  ;  surrendered,  271 
Oruro,  16 


Ouro    Preto,  Viscount    of,    494, 

495.  497 
Ouro  Preto  (city),  399 


Pacific,  Spanish  control  of,  21 
Pampas,  explored,  32  ;  character 

of,   38  ;    description,  40,    41  ; 

expedition  over,  58 
Pampean  sea,  prehistoric,  229 
Panama,  Isthmus  of,  12,  21,  48, 

Paper  currency,  in  Argentine, 
149,  150,  157,  160;  in  Para- 
guay, 223  ;  in  Uruguay,  282  ; 
in  Brazil,  458,  463,  464,  466, 
473.  479-  4S0,  501,  507,  509. 
510 

Para,  Indians  m,  346,  405  ; 
Portuguese  possession  of,  358  ; 
part  of  Maranhao,  371  ;  Jesuits 
in,  374;  development  hindered, 
393  ;  takes  a  new  start,  397  ; 
cotton  trade  in,  405 ;  coffee 
in,  406 ;  expedition  from,  to 
Cayenne,  407  ;  Spanish  con- 
stitution in,  412  ;  Portuguese 
garrison  expelled  from,  420 ; 
and  Constituent  Assembly, 
422;  attitude  toward  "Con- 
federation of  the  Equator," 
425  ;  action  of  troops  in,  436, 
441  ;  production  of  rubber  in, 
490  ;  prosperity  of,  501 

Paraguay  (country),  165-224 ; 
settlement  of,  25,  27  ;  Jesuit 
missions  in,  34;  Indians  in, 
42,  80  ;  separate  province,  61  ; 
intendencia,  75  ;  population, 
75,  220  ;  products  of,  78  ;  atti- 
tude toward  revolutionary 
movement,  gi  ;  war  against 
Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Uru- 
guay, 141,  142,  206-219,  276, 
471 ;  independence  of,  184, 
189,  190,  222,  476;  commercial 
isolation  of,  ig2,  197  ;  Brazil- 
ian protectorate  of,  221 ; 
Paulistas  in,  348 


INDEX 


521 


Paraguay  River,  the,  explorations 
along,  22,  26  ;  settlement  on, 
33  ;  watershed  of,  37  ;  descrip- 
tion of,  38 ;  free  navigation 
on,  200,  464,  471,  476 

Paraguayan  army,  discipline  in, 
2r4 

Parahyba  do  Norte,  location, 
309  ;  population,  338  ;  Span- 
iards take  possession  of,  343  ; 
reduced  by  the  Dutch,  355  ; 
devastated,  363 ;  adhesion  to 
the  "  Confederation  of  the 
Equator,"  425 

Parahyba  do  Sul,  312,  347,  373 

Parana,    Marquis    of,  463,   464, 

465  , 
Parana    (Brazilian    state),     313, 

377.,  405 
Parana  (city),  134 
Parana  River,   the,   explorations 

of,    14,    22,    26,   30,   31,    165  ; 

settlements  on,  27,  33,  34,  62, 

134,    16S  ;  description  of,  38  ; 

Jesuit    missions    on,   60,    171  ; 

Paulistas  on,  67  ;   open  only  to 

Argentin-!    vessels,   200  ;     free 

navigation  on,  202,  270,  464  ; 

European   navies   enter,   269  ; 

valley  of,  312,  313,  377 
Patagonia,  40,  41,  43,  146 
Paulista  pioneers.  318,  348 
Pavon,  battle  of,  64,  137 
Paysandu,  capture  of,  210 
Pedro  I.  of  Brazil,  412-416,  421- 

435.  439 

Pedro  II.  of  Brazil,  infancy, 
433,  444,  446  ;  assumes  im- 
perial functions,  447;  emperor, 
449-457  ;  power  of,  47S  ; 
declining  health,  488,  494  ; 
speech  of,  490 ;  deposition, 
498,  499 

Peixoto,  Floriano,  497,  500,  502- 

505 

Pepper,  406 

Pernambuco  (city),  founded, 
319  ;  nucleus  of  settlement  of 
Brazil,  320  ;  Nobrega  visits, 
328 ;    architecture    of,     340 ; 


po]iulation  of,  347;  advantage- 
ous position  of,  351  ;  taken  l)y 
the  Dutch,  353,  354 ;  taken 
by  the  Brazilian  Creoles,  367  ; 
military  revolts  in,  43S 

Pernambuco  (province),  location 
of,  309  ;  population  of,  338, 
347 ;  rich  planters  of,  339 ; 
Jews  in,  358 ;  civil  war  in, 
3S0 ;  sugar  industry  in,  393  ; 
revolution  in,  409 ;  Spanish 
constitution  in,  412  ;  Portu- 
guese garrison  in,  41S;  garrison 
expelled  from,  419  ;  and  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  422,  424  ; 
action  of  troops  in,  436  ;  con- 
servative governor  of,  455 

Peru,  Pizarro  in,  12,  13,  23  ;  ir- 
rigation in,  14  ;  silver  in,  16, 
22,  78,  233  ;  gold  in,  78 ; 
Spanish  power  in,  100 ;  war 
against,  ill 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  342 

Piauhy,  309,  372,  393,  422 

Pilocomayo  River,  222 

Pinheiro  Machado,  General,  503 

Pinzon,  Vincente  Yanez,  301 

Pitagoares  Indians,  344 

Pizarro,  13,  23,  316 

Polygamy,  220 

iV)ml)al,  Marquis  of,  396 

Pope's  division  of  the  world,  12, 
19,  21,  319 

Porto  Seguro,  320.  33S,  347 

Portugal,  separated  from  Leon, 
4  ;  and  Ciranada  united,  6  ; 
joined  to  Spanish  crown,  47  ; 
general  survev  of  the  history 
of,  28S-292  ;'  Philip  II.,  of 
Spain  on  the  throne  of,  342  ; 
separated  from  Spain,  361  ; 
war  with  Spain,  382  ;  revolt 
of  1820  in,  41 1 

Portuguese  Court,  flight  of,  to 
Rio,  403 

Portuguese  discoveries  and  con- 
quests, 7,  8,  292  ;  in  South 
America,  19,  67,  68,  77,  302 

Potatoes,  41 

Potosi,  16,  51 


522 


INDEX 


Press,  freedom  of,  in  Brazil,  410, 

430,  448,  460,  4S2  ;  restricted, 

422,  424 
Printing-press  in  Brazil,  404,  40S, 

409 
Provincial   organisation,  54,  61, 

74.  77.  405 


Quicksilver  mines,  16 
Quintino  Bocayuva,  495,  497 

R 

Race  elements  in  population,  405 

Railways,  mileage  in  Argentina, 
148  ;  source  of  wealth,  161; 
building  of,  in  Brazil,  463, 
466,  490 ;  building  of,  inter- 
rupted, 508 

Ramalho,  John,  pioneer,  316, 
31S 

Religious  lay  brotherhoods,  484 

Religious  sentiment,  in  Spain, 
5;  in  Argentina,  81;  in  Portu- 
gal, 290  ;  of  Count  John  Mau- 
rice, 356,  358  ;  in  Brazil,  359, 
361  ;  of  Fernandes  Vieira,  369 

Riachuelo,  battle  of,  210,  474 

Rice,  78,  306,  405 

Rio  Branco,  Baron  of,  482,  4S5 

Rio  de  Janeiro  (city),  commercial 
port,  51;  population  of,  347, 
397  ;  prosperity  of,  373,  501; 
attacked  and  taken  by  the 
French,  383  ;  its  reception  of 
the  Prince  Regent,  404 

Rio  de  Janeiro  (province),  why 
so  named,  302  ;  description 
of,  312;  nucleus  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Brazil,  320 ;  French 
occupation  of,  333  et  seq.;  cap- 
tured by  the  Portuguese,  336  ; 
population  of,  338  ;  uprising 
.in,  413 

Rio  Grande  city,  captured  by 
the  Spaniards,  3S8  ;  by  the 
Brazilian  Creoles,  389 

Rio  Grande  do  Norte,  location, 
309  ;  nucleus  of,  344  ;  reduced 


by  the  Dutch,  355  ;  devas- 
tated, 363  ;  Indians  subdued 
in,  373  ;  adhesion  to  the  "  Con- 
federation of  the  Equator," 
425 

Rio  Grande  do  Sul  (city),  387 

Rio  Grande  do  Sul  (province), 
Jesuit  missions  in,  72,  180  ; 
held  by  the  Portuguese,  77, 
244  ;  people  of,  247  ;  Brazilian 
province,  270 ;  and  Uruguay, 
2S4  ;  description  of,  313,  314  ; 
Brazilian  possession  of,  377  ; 
settled,  397  ;  Spanish  Consti- 
tution in,  412  ;  Argentine  in- 
vasion of,  429  ;  rebellions  in, 
441,  442,  454,  502.  504  ;  Para- 
guayan invasion  of,  473,  474 

Rioja,  15,  63,  64 

Rio  Negro,  392 

Rio  Real,  338 

Rivadavia,  Bernardino,  104,  iig, 
120,  262 

Rivera,  Fructuoso,  255,  259,  261- 
269,  461 

Roca,  Julio,  General,  successes 
of,  145  ;  candidate  for  presi- 
dent, 147,  157  ;  his  first  ad- 
ministration, 150;  party  lead- 
er, 153  ;  took  command  of 
army,  155  ;  his  second  ad- 
ministration, 158,  160 ;  his 
followers,  160 

Rodrigues,  Alves,  President,  511 

Rojas,  Diego  de,  14 

Rondeau,  Jose,  General,  254, 
263 

Rosario,  40,  63,  136,  155 

Rosas,  Juan  Manuel,  laudation 
of,  114 ;  federalist  leader  in 
Buenos  Aires,  122  et  seq.,  266  ; 
growth  of  his  power,  200  ;  and 
Montevideo,  268 ;  relations 
with  Entre  Rios,  270  ;  and 
Oribe  faction,  461 

Rubber,  490,  501,  511 


Sabara,  378,  391 


INDEX 


523 


Saldanha  ^farinho,  482 

Salta,  province  of  Argentina,  15  ; 
intendencia,  75  ;  social  condi- 
tions in,  So  ;  Buenos  Airean 
army  passes  through,  91;  war- 
fare in,  94;  rebellion  in,  155 

San  Ildefonso,  treaty  of,  246,  3S9 

San  John  d'El  Rei,  400 

San  Juan,  15,  40,  64,  137 

San  Luiz,  64,  155 

San  Martin,  Jose,  General,  77, 
96-114 

Santa  Catharina,  19,  26  ;  cap- 
tured by  Spain,  77,  246  ;  de- 
scription of,  313  ;  exploration 
of,  316  ;  Brazilian  possession 
of,  377  ;  settlement  of,  3S6, 
397 ;  captured  by  the  Span- 
iards, 3S9  ;  restored  to  Portu- 
gal, 390  ;  invasion  of,  446, 
504,  506  ;  seat  of  revolution- 
ary government,  504 

Santa  Fe,  Argentina  (city),  Span- 
ish settlement  of,  29  ;  desire 
of,  for  independence,  116; 
founded,  168 

Santa  Fe,  Argentina  (province), 
governor  of,  sent  Indians  and 
supplies  to  Buenos  Aires,  31  ; 
Indians  in,  63,  130;  a  part  of 
intendencia  of  Buenos  Aires, 
75;  invasion  of,  121;  Brazilian 
army  in,  129  ;  Congress  held 
in,  131  ;  revolution  in,  155  ; 
Creoles  of,  defeat  Charruas, 
242;  loyal  to  Artigas,  255 

Santa  Luzia,  liattle  of,  453 

Santa  Rita  l)urao(poet).  399 

Santiago  de  Chile,  42,  5t,  107 

Santiago  del  Estero  (Argentina), 
14,  15,  63,  121,  154 

Santo  Amaro,  319 

Santos.  51.  316,  31S 

Sao  Francisco  River, the,  why  so 
named,  302;  valley  of,  310, 
311;  Pernambucos  on,  344; 
military  raids  near,  357;  cattle- 
raisers  established  on,  372  ; 
gold  around  headwaters  of, 
378 


Sao  Paulo  (city),  menaced  by  In- 
dians, 333;  prosperity  of,  501, 
the  home  of  Rodrigues  Alvez, 

511 

Sao  Paulo  (province),   op]  osition 
to    the   extension    of    .Spanish 
dominions,  66;  Jesuits  in,  169, 
328,  330,  347,  374;  description 
of,  313;  conditions  of,  for  set- 
tlement, 31 S;  nucleus  of  settle- 
ment of   Brazil,  320  ;  inhabit- 
ants of,  322;  spread  of  Indians 
in,    332  ;   not    a    sugar-raising 
province,  33S;  profits  by  secret 
trade,  373  ;  gold  in,  378  ;  de- 
populated,   393  ;   an    English- 
man   in,    407  ;    revolution    in, 
453  ;     representation      of,      in 
Chamber  of  Brazil,  488;  coffee 
in,  4 89 
Sao  Vicente,  23,  318 
Saraiva,  Aparcicio,  280 
Saraiva,  Gomercindo,  503,  504 
Saraiva,  Jose  Antonio,  486,  488 
Sarandi,     battle    of,     120,     260, 

427 

Schouten,  48 

Sea-power,  of  England,  82,  269, 
366;  of  Spain,  93,  303,  iii, 
255  ;  of  France,  269  ;  of  P>ra- 
zil,  426,  462 ;  of  Argentina, 
428 

Sergipe,  310,  343,  344.  357 

Seville  Junta.  88,  251 

Sheep-raising,  131.  148,  278 

Silver  mining,  in  Bolivia  and 
Peru,  16,  22,  78,  233  ;  Spain's 
desire  for,  49;   value  of,  50 

.Sipe-Sipe,  battle  of,  104 

Slavery,  Indian,  in  ArgeHtine 
provinces,  17,  33;  tendency 
of,  56;  Hernandarias  opposed 
to,  59  ;  forbidden  by  Spanish 
Government,  60,  175;  under 
.Spaniards,  165;  Paulistas  and, 
174,  322.  347  ;  forbidden  by 
Portuguese  Government,  321  ; 
Jesuits  fought  against,  327  ; 
Mem  da  Sa  and,  335;  Pombal 
and, 39S 


524 


INDEX 


Slavery,  negro,  82,  324,  458 ; 
encouraged,  328,  335  ;  in- 
creased, 398  ;  proportion  of 
slaves  in  population  of  Brazil, 
405.  See  Emancipation  of 
slaves. 

Solis,  Juan  Diaz  de,  19,  230 

Soracaba,  373,  453 

Soriano,  first  settlement  in  Uru- 
guay, 238,  241 

Souza,  Thomas  de,  323,  329 

Spain,  war  with  Portugal,  382  ; 
revolt  of  1820  in,  41 1 

Spanish  authority  unquestioned, 

Spanish  Creoles  at  war  with 
Brazilian  Creoles,  66,  68,  105, 
240,  242,  245,  248,  254,  256, 
382,  388,  389,  409 

Spanish  discoveries  and  con- 
quests, 7,  8,  12-15,  301 

Spanish  monarchy,  structure  of, 
4,  7,  20 

Spanish  possession  of  Portugal 
and  Brazil,  342 

Spanish  treasure  fleet,  capture 
of,  by  the  Dutch,  353 

Street-car  tax  riots,  485 

Sucre  (Charcas),  16,  33,  89,  182 

Sugar,  districts  of  cultivation  of, 
78,  309,  310,  312,  321,  343, 
371  ;  first  cultivation  of,  317, 
321;  industry  prosperous,  321, 
324,  336,  448:  annual  produc- 
tion of,  338;  trade,  351;  price, 
361,  392,  397;  industry  decad- 
ent, 393  ;  staple  production, 
405  ;  comparative  cultivation, 
458;  plantation  companies,  501 

Suipacha,  battle  of,  91 


Tabocas,  battle  of,  362 
Tamoyo  Indians.  331,  335 
Tandil  Mountains,  237 
Tapajos  River,  314 
Taxation,  33S,  393 
Theresina  Christina,  Empress  of 
Brazil,  457.  498 


"Thirty-three,"  the,  259 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  41 

Tiete  River,  347 

Tiradenles,  400 

Tobacco,  78,  310,  393,  405,  448 

Tocantins  River,  310,  392 

Tucuman,  battle  of,  94 

Tucuman  (city),  founded,  15  ; 
Congress  at,  105  ;  Paz's  army 
in,  123,  124 

Tucuman  (province),  Spanish 
rule  in,  15,  17;  political  de- 
pendency, 17,  33,  61  ;  thriving 
towns  in,  62,  63  ;  revolt  in, 
155  ;  missionary  work  in,  182 


U 


Unitarian  party,  119,  121.  123, 
126,  263 

United  States  of  America,  and 
Lopez,  202,  203  ;  arbitrator, 
222  ;  influence  of,  on  Brazil, 
399,  500  ;  recognises  Brazil's 
independence,  426  ;  does  not 
support  Pedro,  434  ;  prevents 
commercial  blockade,  506 

Urqiiiza,  Justo  Jose,  General, 
defeats  allied  unitarians  and 
colorados,  126;  governor  of 
Entre  Rios,  128;  forms  alli- 
ance with  Brazil  and  Colorado 
faction  in  Uruguay,  129,  462, 
472  ;  favours  federal  constitu- 
tion, 131-134  ;  first  president 
of  Argentine  Republic,  135  ; 
his  term  expires,  137  ;  refuses 
to  revolt  against  Buenos  Aires, 
142  ;  revolt  against,  144  ;  his 
friendship  with  Lopez,  200 ; 
general-in-chief,  271;  successes 
in  Uruguay,  271,  462  ;  Lopez 
angry  with,  471 

Uruguay.  34,  75.  227-284 ;  In- 
dians in,  62,  71,  74;  first  set- 
tlement. 68  ;  Spanish  territory, 
77,  100  ;  Portuguese  troops  in, 
no;  war  with  Brazil,  120, 
2og,  256,  260,  470  ;  war  with 
Paraguay,  141,   142,  206-219, 


INDEX 


525 


Uruguay —  Continued 

276,  471  ;  area  of,  229  ;  settle- 
ment of,  23S,  239,  242,  386  ; 
population  of,  247,  265,  273, 
278;  war  with  Argentina,  255, 
267;  independence  of,  255, 259, 
260,  263,  430,  461,  463,  476  ; 
Brazilian  occupation  of,  258, 
408  ;  constitution  of,  264 ; 
Brazilian  intervention  in,  270, 
274,  407,  462 ;  Paulistas  in, 
348  ;  rebellion  against  Pedro, 
427  ;  Brazilian  protectorate  of, 
468 

Uruguay  River,  the,  explored, 
22  ;  harbours,  31  ;  course  of, 
38  ;  Jesuit  missions  along,  60, 
68  ;  navigation  of,  134,  464 

Uruguayana,  capture  of,  212 

Uspallata  Pass,  106 


V 


Vasco  da  Gama.  See  Gama, 
Vasco  da. 

Vasconcellos,  Bernardo,  in  Con- 
gress of  Brazil,  430,  446  ;  ab- 
sent from  Rio,  433  ;  result  of 
work,  440,  441,  443  ;  death, 
461 

Veiga,  Evaristo  da,  430,  433 

Venezuela,  100 


Vespucci,  Amerigo,  302,  306 

Viceroyalties,  divided  into  pro- 
vinces, 53  ;  Peru,  61,  74,  176  ; 
Buenos  Aires,  74,  75,  80 ;  At- 
lantic slope  of  Spanish  South 
America,  246 

Victoria,  311,  320,  378 

Vidal,  guerrilla  chief,  362 

Vieira,  Antonio,  374 

Vieira,  Fernandes.  See  Fernan- 
des  Vieira. 

Vilapugio,  battle  of,  97 

Villegagnon,  French  adventurer, 

334 
Visigoths,  3,  290 

W 

Water  Witch,  incident,  203 
Wheat,  148,  159,  278,  340 
Whitelocke,  General,  85 

X 

Xingu  River,  314 

Y 
Yellow  fever,  461 

Z 
Zeballos,  Pedro  de,  77 


Ji  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Complete  Catalogues  sent 
OTi.  application 


The  Story  of  the  Nations 


In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  National  lift 
£s  distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and  note- 
worthy periods  and  episodes  are  presented  for  the- 
reader  in  their  philosophical  relation  to  each  othei 
as  well  as  to  universal  history. 

It  is  the  plan  of  the  writers  of  the  different  volume? 
to  enter  into  the  real  life  of  the  peoples,  and  to  bring 
them  before  the  reader  as  they  actually  lived,  labored, 
and  struggled — as  they  studied  and  wrote,  and  as 
they  amused  themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  plan, 
the  myths,  with  which  the  history  of  all  lands  be- 
gins, are  not  overlooked,  though  they  are  carefully 
distinguished  from  the  actual  history,  so  far  as  the 
labors  of  the  accepted  historical  authorities  have 
resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

The  subjects  of  the  different  volumes  have  been 
planned  to  cover  connecting  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
consecutive  epochs  or  periods,  so  that  the  set  when 
completed  will  present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative 
the  chief  events  in  the  great  Story  of  the  Nations: 
but  it  is,  of  course,  not  always  practicable  to  issue 
*he  several  volumes  in  their  chronological  order. 

For  list  of  volumes  see  next  page. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS 


GREECE.     Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harrison. 

ROME.     Arthur  Oilman. 

THE  JEWS.     Prof.  James  K.  Hos- 

mer. 

CHALDEA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
GERMANY.     S.  Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY.      Hjalmar  H.  Boyesen. 
SPAIN.      Rev.    E.    E.    and    Susan 
Hale. 

HUNGARY.      Prof.  A.  Vambery. 
CARTHAGE.      Prof.    Alfred    J. 
Church. 

THE  SARACENS.  Arthur  Gil- 
man.  - 

THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.  Stanley 
Lane-Poole. 

THE  NORMANS.  Sarah  Orne 
Jewett. 

PERSIA.      S.  G.  W.  Benjamin. 
ANCIENT  EGYPT.       Prof.  Geo. 
Rawlinson. 

ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.  Prof. 
J.  P.  Mahaffy. 

ASSYRIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

THE  GOTHS.     Henry  Bradley. 

IRELAND.     Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 

TURKEY.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PER- 
SIA-    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

MEDIEVAL  FRANCE.  Prof. 

Gustave  Masson. 

HOLLAND.  Prof.    J.    Thorold 

Rogers. 

MEXICO.     Susan  Hale. 

PHCENICIA.     George  Rawlinson. 

THE  HANSA  TOWNS.  Helen 
Zimmern. 

EARLY  BRITAIN.  Prof.  Alfred 
J.  Church. 

THE      BARBARY       CORSAIRS. 

Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA.     W.  R.  MorfilL 
THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.     W. 

D.  Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.      John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.       R.  Stead  and 

Mrs.  A.  Hug. 
PORTUGAL.     H.  Mprse-Stephens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.     C. 

W.  C.  Oman. 
SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 

THE       TUSCAN      REPUBLICS. 

Bella  Duffy. 
POLAND.     W.  R.  Morfill. 
PARTHIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson. 
JAPAN.      David  Murray. 
THE    CHRISTIAN    RECOVERY 

OF  SPAIN.     H.  E.  Watts. 


AUSTRALASIA.     Greville  Tregar- 

then. 

SOUTHERN  AFRICA.       Geo.  M. 

Theal. 

VENICE.     Alethea  Wiel. 

THE  CRUSADES.        T.  S.  Archer 

and  C.  L.  Kingsford. 
VEDIC  INDIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA.     C.E.Maurice. 
CANADA.     J.  G.  Bourinot. 

THE  BALKAN  STATES.    William 

Aliller. 

BRITISH  RULE  IN  INDIA.  R. 
W.  Frazer. 

MODERN  FRANCE.  Andrd  Le 
Bon. 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE.     Alfred 

T.  Story.      Two  vols. 
THE  FRANKS.       Lewis  Sergeant. 
THE  WEST  INDIES.       Amos    K. 

Fiske. 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  ENGLAND. 
Justin  McCarthy,  M.P.  -Two 
vols. 

AUSTRIA.     Sidney  Whitman. 
CHINA.     Robt.  K.  Douglass. 
MODERN  SPAIN.     Major  Martin 
A.  S.  Hume. 

MODERN  ITALY.         Pietro  Orsi. 
THE     THIRTEEN     COLONIES. 

Helen  A..  Smith.     Two  vols. 
WALES  AND  CORNWALL.  Owne 

M.  Edwards. 
MEDIAEVAL  ROME.  Wm.  Miller. 
THE  PAPAL  MONARCHY,    Wm. 

Barry. 

MEDIEVAL  INDIA.  Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 

BUDDHIST  INDIA.  T.  W.  Rhys- 
Davids. 

THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  RE- 
PUBLICS.  Thomas  C.  Daw- 
son.    Two  vols. 

PARLIAMENTARY  ENGLAND. 
Edward  Jenks. 

MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND.  Mary 
Bateson. 

THE  UNITED  STATES.  Edward 
Earle  Sparks.     Two  vols. 

ENGLAND:  THE  COMING  OF 
PARLIAMENT.  L.  Cecil  Jane. 

GREECE  TO  A.  D.  14.  E.  S. 
Shuckburgh. 

ROMAN  EMPIRE.     Stuart  Jones. 

SWEDEN  AND  DENMARK, 
with  FINLAND  AND  ICE- 
LAND.    Jon  Stefansson. 


Heroes  of  the  Nations 


A  Series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  Kves  and 
work  of  a  number  of  representative  historical  char- 
acters about  whom  have  gathered  the  great  traditions 
of  the  Nations  to  which  they  belonged,  and  who  have 
been  accepted,  in  many  instances,  as  types  of  the 
several  National  ideals.  With  the  life  of  each  typical 
character  is  presented  a  picture  of  the  National  con- 
ditions surroimding  him  during  his  career. 

The  narratives  are  the  work  of  writers  who  are 
recognized  authorities  on  their  several  subjects, 
and  while  thoroughly  trustworthy  as  history,  pre- 
sent pictin"esque  and  dramatic  "  stories  "  of  the  Men 
and  of  the  events  connected  with  them. 

To  the  Life  of  each  "  Hero  "  is  given  one  duo- 
decimo volume,  handsomely  printed  in  large  type, 
provided  with  maps  and  adequately  illustrated  ac' 
cording  to  the  special  requirements  of  the  severa' 
subjects. 

Par  full  list  of  volumes  see  next  page. 


HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS 


NELSON.      By  W.  Clark  Russell. 
By  C. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS. 
R.  L.  Fletcher. 


PERICLES. 


By  Evelyn  Abbott. 
By 


THEODORIC    THE  GOTH. 
Thomas  Hodgkin. 

SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY.    By  H.  R. 
Fox-Bourne. 


JULIUS  C^SAR. 
Fowler, 


By   W.  Ward 


WYCLIF:     By  Lewis  Sargeant. 

NAPOLEON.         By   W.  O'Connor 

Morris. 


HENRY  OF  NAVARRE 
F.  Willert. 

CICERO. 
Davidson. 


By  P. 

By  J.   L.    Strachan- 
By  Noah 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
Brooks. 

PRINCE   HENRY    (  OF  PORTU- 
GAL)    THE    NAVIGATOR. 
By    C.  R.  Beazley. 

JULIAN    THE     PHILOSOPHER. 
By  Alice  Gardner. 

LOUIS  XIV.       By   Arthur  Hassall. 


CHARLES  XII. 
Bain. 


By  R.  Nisbet 
By 


By.    W.   O'Connor 


LORENZO    DE'   MEDICI. 
Edward  Armstrong. 

JEANNE    D'ARC.     By    Mrs.    Oli- 
phant. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.  By 

Washington  Irving. 

ROBERT  THE   BRUCE.     By  Sir 
Herbert  Maxwell. 

HANNIBAL. 

Morris. 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.    By  WUliara 
Conant  Church. 

ROBERT  E.    LEE.       By    Henry 
Alexander  White. 

THE  CID  CAMPEADOR.      By  H. 
Butler  Clarke. 

SALADIN.  By  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

BISMARCK.  By  J.   W.    Headlam. 


ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT, 
Benjamin  I.  Wheeler, 


By 

By  H.  W.  C. 

By 

By  James  B.  Per- 


By  Edward  Jenks. 
By  J.  B. 


CHARLEMAGNE, 
Davis, 

OLIVER    CROMWELL, 
Charles  Firth. 

RICHELIEU, 
kms. 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL.     By  Rob- 
ert Dunlap, 

SAINT    LOUIS  ( Louis    IX.  of 

France  ).      By  Frederick  Perry. 

LORD  CHATHAM.       By  Walford 
David  Green. 

OWEN  GLYNDWR.      By  Arthur 
G.  Bradley. 

HENRY  V.     By  Charles  L.  Kings- 
ford. 

EDWARD  L 

AUGUSTUS  C^SAR 

Firth. 

FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.    By 
W.  F.  Reddaway. 

WELLINGTON.  By  W.  O'Connor 

Morris. 

CONSTANTINE    THE    GREAT. 
By  J.  B.  Firth. 

MOHAMMED.   D.  S.  Margoliouth. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON.        By 
J.  A.  Harrison. 

CHARLES  THE  BOLD.  By  Ruth 
Putnam. 

WILLIAM    THE   CONQUEROR. 
By  F.  B.  Stanton. 

FERNANDO   CORTES.        By  P. 

A.  MacNutt. 

WILLIAM  THE  SILENT.    By  R. 

Putnam. 
BLUCHER.    By  E.  F.  Henderson. 

ROGER  THE  GREAT.        By  E. 

Curtis. 
CANUTE  THE  GREAT.       By  L. 

CAVOUR.     By  Pietro  OrsL 

DEMOSTHENES.  By  A.  W.  Picfc 

ard-Cambridge. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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